The counting of votes for by-elections to two Lok Sabha seats and one Assembly constituency in Rajasthan and one Lok Sabha seat and one Assembly constituency in West Bengal that went to the polls on January 29 began at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
In West Bengal, The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has won the Noapara Assembly constituency and the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat.
In Rajasthan, Congress candidate Vivek Dhakar has won the Mandalgarh Assembly seat and the party is leading in the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats.
An average 63.76% polling was recorded in Alwar and Ajmer, while at Mandalgarh, 76.57% of the electorate exercised their franchise.
A total of 42 candidates were in the fray for the bypolls.
Here are the updates:
Rajasthan: Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress leads by 1,96,496in Alwar. His party colleague Raghu Sharma is leading by a margin of 84,162 in Ajmer.
According to Rajasthan's Chief Electoral Officer, 100% votes have been counted in Alwar and 99.07% in Ajmer. The Congress is currently having an unassailable lead in both seats.
5.20 p.m.
West Bengal: According to sources in the Election Commission of India, Sajda Ahmed of the Trinamool Congress has won the Uluberia Lok Sabha bypoll, beating her nearest rival Anupam Mallick (BJP) by over 4.74 lakh votes, reports PTI .
Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress leads by 1,94,285 in Alwar. His party colleague Raghu Sharma is leading by a margin of 80,455 in Ajmer.
Trinamool Congress maintains the lead ahead of its nearest contender, the BJP, in the Uluberia Lok Sabha bypoll by a massive margin of 3.6 lakh votes, an Election Commission official says. After 14 rounds of counting, Trinamool candidate Sajda Ahmed bags 5,88,211 votes. Her nearest rival, Anupam Mallik of the BJP, secures 2,18,807 votes.
CPI(M) nominee S.K. Sabiruddin Molla and Congress candidate S.K. Madassar Hossain Warsi receive 1,03,015 and 16,784 votes respectively.
Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot says his party will get strengthened by today's results. Besides being the people's verdict on the State government's failures, it is also a mandate against the Centre's demonetisation, GST implementation and economic slowdown, he says at a press conference in Jaipur.
Congress wins Mandalgarh
The Congress wins the Mandalgarh Assembly seat by a margin of 12,974 votes. Vivek Dhakar of the Congress polled 70,143 votes and defeated the BJP's Shakti Singh Hada, who polled 57,169 votes.
Congress rebel Gopal Malviya, who contested as an independent, received 40,470 votes.
TMC wins Noapara, leads in Uluberia
The TMC wins the Noapara bypoll by defeating its nearest rival, the BJP, by 63,018 votes, the Election Commission said.
“The TMC has won the Noapara by-election. The BJP has secured the second position and the CPI(M) the third,” said West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab.
While TMC candidate Sunil Singh secured 1,01,729 votes, the BJP’s Sandip Banerjee got 38,711 votes. CPI (M)’s Gargi Chatterjee got 35,497 votes.
Counting of votes for the by-election in the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat is also underway with the TMC ahead by more than 4,700 votes, reports PTI
Alwar: Congress candidate Karan Singh Yadav leads by 39,826 votes over his nearest rival, BJP's Jaswant Yadav, after 15 rounds of counting. Mr. Yadav has garnered 1,63,489 votes.
Ajmer: Congress’ Raghu Sharma maintains a lead of 23,882 votes over BJP candidate Ram Swaroop Lamba, reports PTI.
Mandalgarh: The trend in Mandalgarh is in favour of the Congress. Vivek Dhakar of the party leads by 1,864 votes at the end of 12th round of counting. BJP's Shakti Singh Hada is trailing behind, reports Mohammad Iqbal.
In Ajmer, the margin with which the Congress candidate is leading increases to 21,000.
In West Bengal, the TMC surged ahead of its rivals in both Noapara and Uluberia after the initial rounds of counting of votes, reports PTI.
At Noapara, the ruling party stormed ahead by a massive margin of 30,000 after the sixth round of counting.
TMC candidate Sunil Singh secured 46,281 votes, while his nearest rival of the CPI(M), Gargi Chatterjee, bagged 16,444 votes. Sandip Banerjee of the BJP secured 15,570 votes, while Goutam Bose of the Congress managed to get just 4,742 votes.
The TMC also took an early lead in Uluberia by a margin of 4,767 votes.
After the first round of counting in Uluberia, TMC candidate Sajda Ahmed secured 6,462 votes, while CPI(M) candidate Sabiruddin Molla bagged 1695 votes. Anupam Mallik of the BJP and S.K. Madassar Hossain Warsi of the Congress managed 1,471 and 256 votes respectively.
The margin with which the Congress is leading in Lok Sabha byelections in Rajasthan is 31,531 in Alwar and 8,555 in Ajmer.
The margin constantly reducing in Mandalgarh. The BJP is ahead by only 350 votes at the end of 10th round, reports Mohammad Iqbal.
Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot says the mandate is going against the BJP due to the failure of both the State and Union governments. People had high expectations, but Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje made false promises and didn't fulfil them. "The Congress will form the next government in Rajasthan," he says.
The Congress lis eading in Ajmer and Alwar on completion of two rounds of counting, says Rajasthan Chief Electoral Officer.
The Congress candidate leads by 10,800 votes in Ajmer. The BJP's Ramswarup Lamba may find it difficult to fill this gap, reports Mohammad Iqbal .
At Mandalgarh, the BJP leads. Congress rebel Gopal Malviya gives a major shock to official candidate Vivek Dhakar, who is trailing at third position, reports Mohammad Iqbal .
In West Bengal, the TMC has taken an early lead. It is leading in Uluberia by about 10,000 votes after the completion of first round of counting in one Assembly segment out of seven, reports Suvojit Bagchi. Counting starts little late and result of only Udaynarayanpur segment [first round] is announced.
In the Noapara Assembly constituency, the TMC is leading by over 30,000 votes.
The CPI(M) and the BJP are neck and neck for the second position.
tHE TMC won both THE seats in the last election.
The BJP leads by 699 votes in first round of counting at Mandalgarh. The nearest rival is Congress rebel Gopal Malviya, who contested as an independent candidate.
In Ajmer, Mr. Sharma leads, says the State Election Commission.
In Alwar, Congress candidate Karan Singh Yadav leads, having secured 18,652 votes on completion of first round, says the State Election Commission.
In West Bengal, the TMC candidates are leading in Noapara and Uluberia, reports Shiv Sahay Singh .
The Uluberia seat in Howrah district fell vacant after the death of TMC MP Sultan Ahmed in September last. The Noapara seat in North 24 Paraganas fell vacant after the death of Congress MLA Madhusudhan Ghosh in April last.
The BJP faces an uphill battle in Rajasthan because a miffed Rajput community has announced its support to the Congress in all the three seats, writes Mohammad Ali . Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot have campaigned extensively in Ajmer in view of the constituency’s role in strengthening their own position within their respective parties.
The Uluberia bypoll result is expected to be a litmus test for the BJP as it not only has to face the organisational clout of the ruling TMC but also deal with substantial minority votes in the constituency.
Counting for by-elections to the constituencies in Rajasthan begins. Postal votes are being counted first, reports Mohammad Iqbal .
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