Lok Sabha bypoll results 2018: BJP wins Palghar seat, loses in Kairana, Bhandara-Gondia

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Lok Sabha bypoll in Palghar in Maharashtra, prompting Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena to allege that there has been anomaly in counting.

NEW DELHI: In a big setback to the ruling BJP, the opposition parties on Thursday snatched 11 seats, limiting the saffron party and its allies to just three, out of four Lok Sabha and 10Assembly seats across 11 states. The results also pointed towards the strengthening of a non-BJP alliance in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the need for the saffron party to devise new strategies to counter the Opposition unity. BJP candidate Gavit Rajendra Dhedya won the bypoll in Palghar Lok Sabha constituency while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) emerged victorious in Bhandara-Gondia seat in Maharashtra. In Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Tabassum Hasan defeated Mriganka Singh of the BJP in Kairana. BJP's ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate Tokheho Yepthomi defeated Naga People's Front's (NPF) C Apok Jamir by 173,746 votes in Nagaland Lok Sabha bypoll.

Of the 10 assembly bypolls, the BJP could win just one (in Uttarakhand). The Congress bagged three (in Meghalaya, Karnataka and Punjab) and others got six - JMM two in Jharkhand; CPI (M), SP, RJD and Trinamool one each in Kerala, UP, Bihar and West Bengal, respectively. The Congress also won one assembly seat in Maharashtra without contest after all other parties withdrew their candidates.

Reacting to the results in Palghar, the Shiv Sena hit out at the BJP, challenging it to contest elections through ballot papers and not Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The counting of votes for bypolls of four high-stake Lok Sabha seats – Kairana, Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar and Nagaland parliamentary constituency – began at 8 am on Thursday. The results of these Lok Sabha constituencies are being seen as a precursor to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Repolling at the four Lok Sabha constituencies took place on Wednesday, May 30. The voter turn-out in Kairana was 61 percent while Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha recorded 45 percent turnout and Nagaland 44.68 percent.

The bypolls in Kairana were necessitated after the seat fell vacant due to BJP leader Hukum Singh's death. Bypolls to Maharashtra's Palghar, a reserved seat, was necessitated following sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanga's death in January. In Bhandara-Gondia the bye-election was necessitated after BJP’s sitting lawmaker Nana Patole joined Congress in December 2017. In Nagaland, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party was the representative of the lone Lok Sabha constituency in Nagaland. He quit in February to contest in the Assembly elections.

Here are the live updates:

31 May 2018

18:59 IST

NDPP candidate Tokheho Yepthomi defeats NPF's C Apok Jamir by 173,746 votes. NPF, a former BJP ally, had won the seat in 2014.

17:43 IST

EC has rejected Shiv Sena's demand for results of Palghar bypoll to not be announced, reports news agency ANI.