BJP Sweeps By-polls

MP:

Ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh today wrested the Kukshi Assembly seat from Opposition Congress for the first time after 21 years with its nominee Mukam Singh Kirade defeating rival Nisha Singhar by a margin of over 16,000 votes.

In Sonkatch, the second Madhya Pradesh seat the BJP wrested from the Congress, its candidate Arjun Verma was a relative of sitting MLA Sajjan Singh Verma who had resigned after he was elected to the Lok Sabha.

BJP retains Chhattisgarh assembly seat

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday won the Sanjari Balod assembly seat in Chhattisgarh Thursday, prompting celebrations at the ruling party’s headquarters while the opposition Congress admitted that the result was a setback.

BJP’s candidate Kumari Bai Sahu defeated her nearest rival Mohan Patel of the Congress by nearly 9,500 votes. A total of 15 candidates were in the fray but 13 of them lost deposits. The elections were held Feb 14.

“It’s a setback, I accept the peoples’ verdict in Sanjari Balod. The party will very soon conduct a comprehensive review on where we went wrong,” Dhanendra Sahu, state Congress president, told reporters.

The BJP was jubilant. Supporters burst firecrackers at the party headquarters here as the victory, after 14 rounds of counting, was flashed by local TV channels.

“It’s a victory of development works and the peoples’ approval to the state government’s policies,” said Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Bhushan Bhatt wins Khadia by-election, BJP retains the seat

Bharatiya Janata Party today won another by-election in Gujarat. Party’s candidate Bhushan Bhatt, son of late Gujarat Assembly Speaker Ashok Bhatt has been victorious with margin of 2473 votes.  Khadia is interestingly an assembly segment that has lowest number of voters in Gujarat. When total voters are around 72,000 and voting percentage is 51%, one can only expect victory by narrow margin.
BJP workers were jubilant and chanted slogans in favor of Bhatt and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi outside Ahmedabad’s Gujarat college where counting was held in the morning.
Khadia witnessed by-election on 14 February due to death of Shri Ashok Bhatt. Bhatt was senior MLA who was elected from Khadia for number of times. He was senior minister and later Speaker of Gujarat assembly when he died. After his death, the BJP had given ticket to his son Bhushan Bhatt, a local councilor. Congress had selected Jagat Shukla as their candidate. Congress roped in Mohammad Azhruddin and Gujarat actress Roma Manek on the last day of campaign. Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela had addressed several community meetings of the voters of Khadia. Senior Congress leaders including Vaghela, Siddharth Patel, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia had addressed public meetings in the course of Khadia by-poll campaign.

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