Congress wins in Rajasthan, TMC sweeps Bengal
BY MPOST BUREAU1 Feb 2018 11:58 PM IST
MPOST BUREAU1 Feb 2018 11:58 PM IST
JAIPUR/KOLKATA: The Congress and the TMC on Thursday swept the bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats in Rajasthan and West Bengal by impressive margins, dealing a huge blow to the BJP days ahead of assembly elections in three states.
The BJP came in for a severe drubbing in Rajasthan where it is eyeing a second straight term, with Congress candidates thumping its nominees in two Lok Sabha and one assembly seats.
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress quelled the BJP challenge in West Bengal with ease as its candidates won the Uluberia Lok Sabha and Noapara assembly seats, trouncing their nearest saffron party rivals.
After making a remarkable turnaround in its electoral fortunes in neighbouring Gujarat late last year, the Congress put up a muscular performance in Rajasthan where its candidates wrested Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha and Mandalgarh assembly seats from the BJP by impressive margins.
Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress trounced his nearest BJP rival Jaswant Yadav by a whopping 1,96,496 votes in Alwar, while the main opposition party's nominee for Ajmer Raghu Sharma beat BJP's Swaroop Lamba by an impressive margin of 84,414 votes, the state election office said.
The Congress's Vivek Dhakad won the Mandalgarh assembly seat, defeating his nearest BJP rival Shakti Singh Hada by nearly 13,000 votes. Rebel Congress leader Gopal Malviya, who contested as an independent, failed to alter the outcome.
The BJP had won all the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state in the 2014 general elections.
The party, which wrested power from the Congress in Rajasthan in 2013, had 161 MLAs in the House of 200.
With Thursday's win, the Congress's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up to 48.
Buoyed by the results, a jubilant Congress president Rahul Gandhi hailed the party's Rajasthan unit for its impressive show, calling the outcome a "rejection" of the BJP by the people.
The Congress's electoral distress, however, continued in Mamata Banerjee's citadel of West Bengal where it finished a poor fourth in both Uluberia Lok Sabha and Noapara assembly constituencies. Both its candidates lost their security deposits.
The BJP, which is seeking to position itself as the chief opposition party, increased its vote share in both seats, with its candidates finishing second. CPM candidates ranked third.
TMC candidate Sajda Ahmed trounced Anupam Mallick of BJP by over 4.74 lakh votes in Uluberia Lok Sabha seat in Howrah district.
In Noapara assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, TMC candidate Sunil Singh humbled his BJP rival Sandip Banerjee by over 63,000 votes.
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