In a severe blow to the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala, the opposition UDF on Monday surged ahead in the Nilambur Assembly by-election and was on the verge of victory as counting neared completion.
Meanwhile, AAP candidate Gopal Italia has won Visavadar seat in Gujarat. Another AAP candidate, Sanjeev Arora has won from the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress Kaliganj assembly seat polls by over 50,000 votes.
Meanhwile BJP's Rajendra Chavda retained Gujarat's Kadi seat.
Nilambur Assembly Bypoll In Kerala
By the end of the final round of counting, Election Commission figures showed Aryadan Shoukath, the Congress-led UDF candidate, had taken a lead of 11,077 votes over M Swaraj of the ruling CPI(M).
Shoukath is the son of the late Congress stalwart Aryadan Muhammed, while Swaraj is a state secretariat member of the CPI(M).
The Left candidate congratulated Shoukath.
Swaraj said the LDF would closely examine the results but rejected suggestions of anti-incumbency against the Left government.
Shoukath said the outcome was expected. "It was a victory anticipated by the people of Kerala -- a major win against the LDF government," he said.
Independent candidate and two-time legislator P V Anvar who is also the state convenor of the Trinamool Congress secured 18,823 votes-- well ahead of BJP candidate Mohan George, who polled 8,241 votes.
The UDF camp erupted in joy in Nilambur and parts of Kerala as Shoukath established an unassailable lead over Swaraj.
A rejoiced Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, who led the by-election campaign from the front, said the UDF would capture power in 2026.
The Nilambur seat fell vacant following the resignation of Anvar, triggering a fierce political battle in the forest-fringe constituency.
Ludhiana Bypoll In Punjab
AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora has won the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab beating Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, according to initial trends.
Arora was ahead of Ashu by 7,504 votes after the 11 of 14th rounds of counting. Arora had polled 27,872 votes and Ashu 20,638 votes.
The AAP workers started celebrations over Arora's lead, anticipating his victory in a fierce electoral fight.
From the beginning of counting, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Arora took the lead.
Though the AAP nominee maintained overall lead, Ashu led fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of counting during which, the AAP candidate's margin dropped.
After the first three rounds of counting, Arora was leading with a margin of 3,060 votes, which dipped to 2,286 votes after the sixth round.
However, Arora's margin again started rising from the seventh round onwards.
BJP's Jiwan Gupta, who took over Ashu in third round, polled 15,811 votes. Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Parupkar Singh Ghuman was fourth with 6,352 votes.
There were 14 candidates in the fray and the counting of votes for the June 19 bypoll began at 8 am at a centre set up in Khalsa College for Women here.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
A voter turnout of 51.33 per cent was recorded in the bypoll, a sharp drop from the 64 per cent voting registered in the 2022 state polls. There were a total of 1.75 lakh eligible voters for the bypoll.
The bypoll was seen as a litmus test for the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government and the ruling party's national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this seat.
Kaliganj Bypoll In West Bengal
The Trinamool Congress Alifa Ahamed has won the by-election in the Kaliganj assembly seat in West Bengal's Nadia district by over 50, 000 votes.
Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh, backed by the CPI(M) and BJP nominee Ashis Ghosh were also contesting for this seat.
Counting began at 8 am with the postal ballots.
The bypoll was necessitated following the sudden demise of sitting TMC MLA Nasiruddin Ahamed in February this year. His daughter, Alifa Ahamed, has been fielded by the party to retain the seat.
Voting for the by-election was held on Thursday, with a voter turnout of 69.85 per cent recorded till 5 pm. Barring a few isolated incidents, voting remained largely peaceful.
Kadi & Visavadar Bypolls In Gujarat
AAP leader Gopal Italia won the Visavadar seat, while BJP's Rajendra Chavda bagged Kadi seat on Monday, as counting for bypolls to the two constituencies in Gujarat concluded, officials said.
Italia, the former Gujarat president of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), defeated his nearest rival, BJP candidate Kirit Patel, in Visavadar seat of Junagadh district by a margin of 17,554 votes.
While Italia received 75,942 votes, Patel got 58,388 votes after the end of total 21 rounds of counting, as per the data shared by the Election Commission.
BJP leaders earlier said they were hoping to break the 18-year jinx in Visavadar, where the party last tasted victory in 2007.
In Kadi seat of Mehsana district, reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates, BJP's Rajendra Chavda emerged victorious by a margin of 39,452 votes over Congress' Ramesh Chavda after the end of all 22 rounds of counting.
While Rajendra Chavda received 99,742 votes, former Congress MLA Ramesh Chavda managed to secure 60,290 votes.
The bypolls, held on June 19, witnessed 57.90 per cent voter turnout in Kadi seat and 56.89 per cent in Visavadar constituency, officials said.
The counting of votes started at 8 am on Monday and ended at around 1.30pm, they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and AAP fielded their candidates in both the seats.
The Visavadar seat fell vacant in December 2023 after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.
The Congress fielded Nitin Ranpariya from Visavadar.
Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007.
In the last assembly election in 2022, AAP's Bhupendra Bhayani defeated BJP's Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat and former MLA, by 7,063 votes.
The Kadi constituency was lying vacant since February 4 following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.
In the bypoll, the BJP fielded Rajendra Chavda, while the Congress gave ticket to Ramesh Chavda, who won the seat in 2012 but lost it to BJP's Karsan Solanki in 2017.
Like Visavadar, there was a three-way contest in Kadi also, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP fielding Jagdish Chavda.
In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the party position following the bypoll results is as follows: BJP 162, Congress 12 and AAP 5. While one seat is with the Samajwadi Party, two are with independents. PTI PJT PD GK
