Congress, Trinamool emerging victorious in by polls

Kerala/ WB/ Shimla/ Rajasthan/ Lucknow, Nov 10 (ANI): Continuing with its impressive performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress led UDF retained all the three assembly seats in Kerala.

The LDF suffered a blow in politically sensitive Kannur, where Congress candidate and former CPM MP A P Abdullakutty emerged victorious by a margin of 12,000 votes over CPM's M V Jayarajan.

Congress candidates Dominic Presentation trounced CPM's P N Sinulal in Ernakulam by over 8000 votes, while his colleague A A Shukur retained the Alappuzha seat by defeating G Krishaparasad of CPI by 4000 votes.

In West Bengal, the CPM- led ruling Left Front appeared heading for another poll debacle after the Lok Sabha elections with the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine winning five of the 10 seats where by-elections were held.

The combine was ahead of their Left rivals in three other constituencies, according to the reports available from the different counting centers.

The Left Front, which had fielded candidates in all the 10 seats, was leading in only Goalpokhar constituency. In Kalchini constituency in Jalpaiguri district, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supported Independent Wilson Champamari wrested the seat from RSP, defeating Binoy Bhushan Karket by over 6,000 votes.

BJP won the Rohroo assembly seat and Congress bagged Jawali in Himachal Pradesh as results of the two by-polls were declared on Tuesday. While Congress held the Rohroo seat, Jawali was represented by BJP.

In Rohroo seat Khushiram Balnatah defeated Congress candidate Manjit Singh Thakur by 8,473 votes, while in Jawali former state minister and Congress nominee Sujan Singh Pathania humbled BJP's Chaudhary Baldev Raj by 5,249 votes.

In Rajasthan, BJP and the ruling Congress won one seat each respectively. BJP's Ramesh Chand was declared elected from Todabhim, while Basanti Meena of the Congress bagged the Salumber seat. With these wins, the Congress tally in the state assembly has gone up to 102 and the BJP strength is now 79.

Congress is leading in the two Assam assembly constituencies for which elections were held last week.

In Chhattisgarh, BJP has established an early lead over the Congress in the Vaishali Nagar assembly seat.

In Firozdabad Lok Sabha by poll, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh's daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav lost to Congress candidate Raj Babbar by 85,343 votes, while the ruling BSP was ahead in eight of the 11 assembly seats where by polls were held last week.

BSP candidates were leading in seven assembly seats --Powayan, Isauli, Hainsar Bazar, Padrauna, Rari, Etawah and Lalitpur -- after initial six-seven rounds of counting, said sources from the Election Department. BSP candidate Shiv Prasad Yadav won from Bharthana assembly seat.

Congress is trailing in both Jhansi and Padrauna seats it held in 2007 assembly elections.

In Jhansi, BSP candidate Kailash Sahu is leading over his nearest rival independent candidate Vijendra Vyas by over 1000 votes, whereas in Padrauna, BSP candidate and its state president Swami Prasad Maurya is leading over his nearest Congress rival Mohni Devi. (ANI)