Bypolls: AAP Retains Rajinder Nagar, Suffers jolt in Sangrur

New Delhi/Lucknow/Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha was among the victorious BJP candidates in the by-poll results announced on Sunday as the party bagged three out of four Assembly seats in the Eastern state and wrested the Samajwadi Party strongholds of Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the AAP lost Punjab's Sangrur parliamentary constituency.

However, there was some cheer for Arvind Kejriwal's Party as it retained Rajinder Nagar assembly seat in the national capital.

The Congress won a seat each in Tripura, where it opened its account after drawing nil in the last Assembly polls, and Jharkhand, while the ruling YSR Congress emerged victorious in the Atmakuru Assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh.

Counting of votes was held on Sunday for the June 23 by-election to three Lok Sabha and seven Assembly seats spread across five states and Delhi.

In Uttar Pradesh, ruling BJP candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi won the Rampur parliamentary seat by a margin of over 42,000 votes.

Lodhi defeated SP's Mohd Asim Raja, considered close to senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan who won the seat in 2019 but vacated it after being elected to the Assembly.

In Azamgarh, also a pocket borough of the SP and vacated by party chief Akhilesh Yadav after his election to the state assembly, BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' defeated Dharmendra Yadav of SP by a margin of 8,679 votes.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attributed the victory to the work done by the ''double-engine" government of the BJP.

''People have sent a message they aren't ready to accept dynastic and casteist parties who incite communal tension,'' he said.

In Delhi's Rajinder Nagar, AAP's Durgesh Pathak defeated BJP candidate Rajesh Bhatia by a margin of over 11,000 votes, officials said.

"People defeated their dirty politics and appreciated our good work. Thank you Rajinder Nagar, thank you Delhi," Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said.

The party, however, suffered a jolt in Punjab as SAD (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat defeating AAP's Gurmail Singh by a margin of 5,822 votes.

The seat was won twice by AAP leader and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The defeat came just three months after AAP registered a resounding victory in the Assembly elections when it won 92 of the 117 Assembly segments.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and candidate Mann, 77, has been elected from Sangrur nearly 23 years after winning the seat in 1999.

The BJP consolidated its position in Tripura winning three of the four Assembly seats.

Chief Minister Manik Saha secured 17,181 votes, which is 51.63% of the total votes polled.

"The people who voted for me, I thank them. This is the victory of BJP workers. I expected the margin to be a bit more. However, the results prove the understanding between the CPI(M) and Congress. We will work accordingly in the future, but people did not take this understanding in a good way," the chief minister told reporters.

The TMC, which was looking to make inroads in the Northeastern state, performed dismally with its candidates losing deposits in all the seats.

Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won the Agartala seat by a margin of 3,163 votes. He secured 17,241 votes, which is 43.46% of the total votes polled.

At least 19 people including Tripura PCC chief Birajit Sinha were injured in a clash between Congress and BJP supporters in front of Congress Bhavan in the state capital after the results of the by-elections for four Assembly seats were declared.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the people.

The CPI(M) lost its citadel of Jubarajnagar to the BJP by a margin of 4,572 votes. BJP candidate Malina Debnath got 18,769 votes (51.83%), while CPI(M)'s Shailendra Chandra Nath secured 14,197 votes (39.2%).

In Surma, BJP's Swapna Das won by a margin of 4,583 votes, securing a total of 16,677 votes (42.34%). Her nearest rival Baburam Satnami of TIPRA Motha got 12,094 votes (30.7%).

The ruling YSR Congress retained the Atmakuru Assembly seat in SPS Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh by a huge margin of 82,888 votes.

YSRC’s Mekapati Vikram Reddy secured 1,02,241 votes against his rival G Bharat Kumar Yadav of the BJP, who managed to get only 19,353.

Congress candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey won from Jharkhand's Mandar seat, defeating BJP's Gangotri Kujur by a margin of 23,517 votes.