The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a setback in Himachal Pradesh as opposition Congress won all three assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai in the bypolls held on October 30. The Congress is also leading in the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. In Haryana, too, the ruling BJP’s Gobind Kanda was trailing behind Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate Abhay Chautala.

By-elections were held for five seats in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana. Lok Sabha seats of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh also went to bypolls.

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Congress candidates Bhawani Singh Pathania and Sanjay retained Fatehpur and Arki Assembly seats in Himachal while Rohit Thakur wrested the Jubbal-Kotkhai seat from the BJP, according to poll results announced by the Election Commission on Tuesday.

Congress is also ahead in Mandi, where BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma had won by a huge margin of 4,05,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, late chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh is leading against BJP’s Khushal Thakur.

The BJP, however, is faring relatively better in the northeast, with the ruling party and its ally UPPL securing one seat each in the Assam by-polls and leading in the other three seats as well.

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In Meghalaya, former footballer Eugeneson Lyngdoh has won on a United Democratic Party ticket. The BJP ally NPP (National People’s Party) has won the Rajbala seat and is ahead in another. In Mizoram, the MNF has won the Tuirial seat.

In Bihar, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United is ahead in one seat and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in another. The BJP is also ahead in the one seat it held in Madhya Pradesh and two others.

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In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress is leading in Vallabhnagar and Dhariawad seats.

The ruling Trinamool Congress( TMC) won the Dinhata and Khardah assembly seats in West Bengal, and was on the verge of victory in two other segments. In Karnataka, the BJP has a lead in one seat while the Congress in the other.