Cong, BSP gain in by-polls, Left and SP lose

New Delhi: The Congress and its ally Trinamool Congress scored major victories in by-elections for one Lok Sabha and 31 assembly constituencies across seven states in which the biggest losers were the beleaguered Left and the Samajwadi Party.

Of the 10 assembly seats in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Kerala and Chhattisgarh, the Congress bagged eight. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got the remaining two.

The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was another major gainer from Saturday's by-elections as it was poised to win eight of 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, where it put up a poor show in the May Lok Sabha election.

Congress supporters celebrated outside the party's national headquarters here as initial trends put Congress candidate and film star Raj Babbar in the victory lap in the Ferozabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Officials said he was ahead of Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of party chief and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, by a margin of 4,000 votes. Raj Babbar quit the Samajwadi Party to join the Congress.

While the Samajwadi Party and the BJP failed to take a lead anywhere in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP was ahead of its rivals in eight of 11 places that saw polling. These included Mulayam Singh's known strongholds Etawah and Bhartana.

The Congress was ahead of the BJP in Lucknow (West).

The most significant result came from Left-ruled West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine swept five of the 10 West Bengal assembly seats and was ahead in three others.

The Left Front, which won three of the 10 seats in 2006, led only in Goalpokhar, where Forward Bloc's Ali Imran Ramoz was ahead of his closest rival by about 4,000 votes.

The Trinamool bagged Bongaon, Serampore, Alipore and Rajganj while the Congress won from its traditional stronghold Sujapur in Malda district. In a startling result, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha-backed independent Wilson Champamari won from Kalichini in north Bengal's Jalpaiguri district.

In Alipore, Trinamool's Bobby Hakim trounced his nearest rival Kuastav Chatterjee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) by over 27,000 votes. Trinamool was ahead in Belgachia (East), Contai South and Egra.

The Trinamool's lead in Belgachia (East) on Kolkata's outskirts was significant as the constituency had elected popular CPI-M leader Subhas Chakraborty seven times. Chakraborty died this year and the CPI-M nominated Chakraborty's widow Ramala against Trinamool leader Sujit Bose.

In Chhattisgarh, the ruling BJP suffered a shocking defeat with Congress candidate Bhajan Singh Nirankari defeating Jageshwar Sahu of BJP by nearly 1,600 votes. The BJP won the seat by nearly 22,000 votes in November.

In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress and BJP shared the spoils, winning one seat each.

Congress candidate Sujan Singh Pathania won from Jawali by 5,249 votes, whereas the BJP's Khushi Ram Balnatah won from Rohru by a margin of 8,473 votes. Rohru is considered a stronghold of Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, a three-time chief minister, and the BJP won it for the first time.

In Rajasthan too, the Congress and BJP won one seat each. The BJP's Ramesh Chand won from Todabhim, defeating Congress rival Shivdayal Meena by 8,200 votes. Basanti Meena of the Congress bagged the Salumber seat, overcoming Amrat Lal of the BJP by a margin of over 3,000 votes.

The Congress won both seats in Assam. Wajed Ali Choudhury won from South Salmara, defeating the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) candidate Abdur Rahman Ajmal. In Dhekiajuli, in northern Assam, Bhimananda Tanti defeated Asom Gana Parishad's (AGP) Shib Charan Sahu.

The Congress swept Left-ruled Kerala too. In Kannur, former CPI-M Lok Sabha member A P Abdulla Kutty defeated MV Jayarajan of the CPI-M by over 12,000 votes. In Ernakulam, Dominic Presentation defeated CPI-M's P N Seenulal by more than 8,000 votes. In Alappuzha, A A Shukur beat G. Krishnaprasad of the Communist Party of India (CPI) by 5,000 votes.