Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) were dealt severe blows on Sunday as results were announced for by-elections to three Lok Sabha seats and seven state assembly seats across five states and Delhi. The BJP is the day’s big winner.

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AAP, still celebrating its big victory in the Punjab assembly elections three months ago, has lost its stronghold Sangrur, a Lok Sabha seat held by the party’s Bhagwant Mann for the last eight years. The by-election was held because Mann resigned from the Lok Sabha after he was elected to the Punjab assembly in March and was appointed Punjab chief minister.

A 77-year-old politician Simranjit Singh Mann of the Akali Dal (Amristsar) unseated AAP in Sangrur, defeating its Gurmail Singh by a margin of 5,822 votes. He dedicated his win to, among others, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, who was shot dead by gangsters last month. Moose Wala, who had contested the Punjab elections as a Congress candidate, had backed Mann for the by-election.

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The Punjab loss is awkward for AAP, which is going flat out to try and win another state in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh in assembly elections later this year.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party has lost two Lok Sabha seats given up by party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan when they contested the state elections earlier this year. Both were won by the BJP, which adds to its massive bag of Lok Sabha seats from the state. Rampur has been won by the BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi and Azamgarh, by the party’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’.

Both Rampur and Azamgarh are considered Samajwadi Party bastions. Azamgarh was won by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 and his son and now party chief Akhilesh Yadav in 2019.

Ruling party BJP has also won three out of four assembly seats for which by-elections were held in Tripura . The Congress has won one seat, Agartala, and Sudip Roy Barman will now be the only Congress MLA in the assembly.

In Delhi, AAP’s Durgesh Pathak.has won the by-election to the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat. Senior AAP leader Raghav Chaddha had vacated the seat after he was nominated by his party for the Rajya Sabha or upper house of Parliament.

In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSR Congress is ahead in the Atmakuru assembly by-election. In Jharkhand, the Congress’ Shilpi Neha Tirkey won the by-election from Mandar.