The BJP has had a clean sweep in both Assembly constituencies in Tripura where the byelections were held, wresting the seat from CPI (M) in Boxanagar and retaining it in Dhanpur.
BJP's Tafajjal Hossain won the Boxanagar seat, which has around 66 per cent minority voters, by 30,237 votes. Hossain got 34,146 votes, while his nearest rival Mizan Hossain of the CPI(M) got 3,909 votes.
BJP candidate Bindu Debnath bagged the Dhanpur seat, which has a significant tribal population, by 18,871 votes. Debnath got 30,017 votes, and his nearest rival Kaushik Chanda of the CPI(M) got 11,146 votes.
While the saffron party won the Dhanpur seat for the first time in the assembly polls held seven months ago, it scripted victory by wresting the minority-dominated Boxanagar seat from the CPI(M). With these victories, the BJP's tally in the 60-member assembly increased to 33. Its ally IPFT has one MLA, while the opposition Tipra Motha has 13 MLAs, CPI(M) has 10 and the Congress has three MLAs.
The CPM had boycotted counting of the votes alleging large-scale rigging during the polling and inaction by the Election Commission.
In other seats, INDIA candidate, SP's Sudhakar Singh, is racing ahead of his BJP rival Dara Singh Chauhan with a margin of 4,067 votes as counting enters the fourth round in Ghosi assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. According to the Election Commission (EC), Singh has garnered 14,286 votes by 11:30 a.m. while Chauhan got 10,219. There will be 34 rounds of counting.
The byelections are seen as the first major electoral clash between the NDA and the Opposition bloc INDIA.
In West Bengal's Dhupguri bypoll, BJP's Tapasi Roy leads with 1,085 votes. TMC's Nirmal Chandra Roy was at the second spot, while CPI(M) candidate Ishwar Chandra Roy, backed by the Congress, was at a distant third spot.
In Jharkhand's Dumri Assembly seat, JMM candidate Bebi Devi, fielded by the INDIA alliance, was leading by 1,341 votes over her nearest AJSU party rival Yashoda Devi after two rounds of counting.
Bebi Devi secured 7,314 votes while the AJSU Party candidate, an NDA nominee, got 5,973 votes. Giridih deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer Naman Priyesh Lakra told PTI that the counting of votes began at 8 a.m. on Friday for the by-election amid tight security.
In Bageshwar, the Congress snatched an early lead over the BJP with its candidate Basant Kumar leading by 195 votes over the saffron party's Parvati Das in the initial round of counting on Thursday. At the end of the second round of counting, Kumar had garnered 4,554 votes while Das had polled 4,359 votes so far.
