Ruling parties sweep by-elections

But BJP increases vote share in Tripura, Kerala

Madhya Pradesh BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan celebrates Chander Singh Sisodia's victory in the by-election on Tuesday. Photo: A.M Faruqui

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s record victory from the RK Nagar seat in Chennai was the most notable among the six by-election results declared on Tuesday. In all five States where elections were held, the ruling party candidates emerged victorious.

In another notable trend, the Bharatiya Janata Party dislodged the Congress from the number two spot in the two seats in Tripura, where the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) won. The BJP retained the Garoth Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh.

However, the party suffered a setback in Kerala where its candidate for the Aruvikkara seat, former Union Minister O. Rajagopal, finished third behind M. Vijayakumar (CPI-M) and K.S. Sabarinadhan (Congress), who won the seat by over 10,000 votes. Mr. Rajagopal had run Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor close in the Thiruvananthapuram seat during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, losing by a mere 15,000 votes.

Mr. Sabarinadhan’s victory is a shot in the arm for the UDF government in Kerala ahead of Assembly polls next year. The Congress, which leads the government in Meghalaya, also won the Chokpot seat there.

Ms. Jayalalithaa won the RK Nagar seat by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes, defeating her nearest rival, C. Mahendran (CPI), who had to forfeit his deposit. The by-election was necessitated after P. Vetrivel (AIADMK) vacated the seat in May so that Ms. Jayalalithaa could seek re-election after she was sworn in Chief Minister following her acquittal in a disproportionate assets case.

The BJP’s victory in the Garoth Assembly seat in MP’s Mandsaur district came with a reduced margin than in the 2013 Assembly polls. Chander Singh Sisodia defeated Subhash Kumar Sojatia (Congress) with a margin of 12,945 votes. The BJP had earlier won by a margin of 25,755 votes and the Congress claimed that the reduced margin was a ‘moral defeat’ for the party.

In Tripura, the CPI(M) won both the Pratapgarh (SC) and Surma (SC) seats by a huge margin. Ramu Das defeated his nearest BJP rival Mousami Das by 17,326 votes in Pratapgarh while Anjan Das beat his nearest BJP rival Asish Das in Surma by a margin of 15,309 votes.

In Meghalaya, Congress won the Chokpot seat by a margin of 2,550 votes with its candidate Bluebell R Sangma defeating her nearest rival Philipole Marak of National People’s Party.