It was a BJP sweep once again as the saffron party won five out of 10 seats in eight states across the country where counting took place on Thursday, April 13. Even where it lost the seats, the BJP showed its opponents — the Congress at Ater in Madhya Pradesh and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal — that it was was not a party to be dismissed easily.
The only place where the Congress really showed its strength was in Karnataka, where it won both the Nanjangud and Gundlupet seats by a comfortable margin. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost the Rajouri Garden seat so miserably that its candidate Harjeet Singh lost his election deposit!
BJP wave in general
The BJP kept its iron grip over most of the seats where counting took place on Thursday. It easily won the Bhoranj seat in Himachal Pradesh, with Union Home Minister JP Nadda later congratulating the winning candidate Anil Dhiman. This was followed by the victory of Ranoj Pegu at the Dhemaji Assembly constituency in Assam.
BJP-SAD candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa won the Rajouri Garden byelection in Delhi, while the BJP also won the Dholpur constituency in Rajasthan. The saffron party also won the Bandhavgarh constituency in Madhya Pradesh.
Other seats
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won the Littipara constituency in Jharkhand, while the Trinamool Congress won the Kanthi Dakshin constituency in West Bengal. Congress won the two constituencies in Karnataka, and the Ater constituency in MP.
The contest was tight in Ater, where the BJP lost by just about 850 votes. The result was also significant in Kanthi Dakshin, where the BJP almost quadrupled the number of votes from the previous election to finish second, even as the Left parties and the Congress were left lagging behind.
Troubles for AAP?
AAP, meanwhile, faced a crushing defeat at Rajouri Garden 10 days ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections. The AAP candidate lost his election deposit, prompting BJP leader Nupur Sharma to throw an open challenge to AAP leader arvind Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister and contest elections against her once again.
