Bypoll trends: BJP faces challenge all over

Three Lok Sabha constituencies-  Vadodara (Gujarat), Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) and Medak (Telangana) - and 32 assembly seats across eight states went to poll on Saturday last with eyes also fixed on the two seats that went to polls in West Bengal owing to a serious challenge thrown by an aggressive BJP to ponzi-scam hit ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. .

Of the Assembly seats 11  are in UP, nine in Gujarat, four in Rajasthan, two in West Bengal, one each in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and five in Northeastern states, including Assam.

BJP, however, faced challenges from Congress even its stronghold Gujarat besides in Rajasthan. In Uttar Pradesh where it did very well in Lok Sabha polls, it is trailing behind Samajwadi Party which took a huge lead. It is jolt for BJP so far.

In Gujarat (where nine assembly seats went to bypolls) while Congress won Dessa and Mangrol, the BJP has won Maninagar, Tankara and Vadodara as the result shows worries for BJP in the home state of Narendra Modi. However, overall BJP is leading in seven seats (including wins).

The Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, BJP is leading.

In Rajasthan bypolls, Congress and BJP are leading in two seats each of the total four that went to polls.

The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh gained big in bypolls as counting progressed despite a good show of BJP in Lok Sabha. SP is leading in nine seats as against two by BJP. In one Lok Sabha seat-  Mainpuri- in UP, Samajwadi Party is ahead.

In Assam morning trends showed the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) ahead in Silchar, Lakhipur and Jamunamukh assembly constituencies that went to polls. The leader of the party is Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Al-Qasmi, Member of the Parliament.

In Seemandhra (Andhra Pradesh), the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is leading in the one seat that went to polls.

The Medak Lok Sabha seat in Telangana also witnessed bypoll after the seat was vacated by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao after he became the Chief Minister of India's newest state.TRS is leading.

As counting of votes in West Bengal continued on Tuesday, the ruling Trinamool Congress is ahead in both the Chowringhee (in Kolkata) and Basirhat South (in North 24 Parganas) seats though the BJP is fast catching up with the TMC in Basirhat with the votes of the towns now being counted after the TMC took lead in the rural segments.

In Basirhat South, BJP candidate Samik Bhattacharjee is trailing behind Trinamool candidate, footballer Dipendu Biswas, after the counting of the rural segments. But now the town's (Basirhat and Taki) counting has begun and BJP is gaining there fast.

They reduced the trailing margin from 17,000 to  just 1500 votes after the tenth round of counting  and so the two parties can now go for a neck and neck fight. 

In Chowringhee, Trinamool Congress candidate Nayana Bandopadhayay is ahead. Interestingly, Congress, a party that was not focused much by media with the rise of BJP, is second here (its candidate is Santosh Pathak) and BJP (its state spokesperson Ritesh Tiwari is the candidate) is placed third as of now. The trends in favour of TMC emerged after eight rounds of counting of the total 16 rounds.

The Mamata Banerjee-led ruling Trinamool Congress’faced a strong challenge in these seats from BJP after its image was badly hit by the arrest of two of its party leaders in the multi-crore Saradha chit-fund scam. Several others connected to TMC are being grilled by the CBI.