The bypoll is considered a test for ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led front, which assumed office five months ago.
Sudhakar and Somashekar were earlier with the Congress. They were among the 17 Congress-Janata Dal Secular legislators who quit and defected to BJP that led to the collapse of the coalition government and paved the way for BJP to come to power.
The annoucement of Sidhi result was preceded by an hour-long drama when BJP alleged vogus voting in four polling booths in Churhat area and asked the Returning Officer to order fresh polling in Bhopal.
The BJP stood fourth in (the 2022) Punjab (assembly elections) after AAP, Shriomani Akali Dal and Congress. The question is why did Rinku join the BJP. His tenure as Lok Sabha MP has also ended. The BJP will also come fourth in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha polls
"In May 2014, the BJP won 282 Lok Sabha seats. In four years, BJP government is down to 271, losing its simple majority in Lok Sabha minus its allies - considering the fact that PM Modi has suspended Kirti Azad and virtually disowned their most truthful, fiercely independent Patna Sahib MP," Surjewala tweeted.
Rehman made last ditch efforts to convince Hussain and leaders of the other four component parties of the MMA to delay the decision to resign, but in vain, Daily Times reported.
So, 11 years after the country switched to EVMs, voters in the 12 Telangana constituencies will once again be depending on paper ballots, ballot boxes and manual counting of votes in the July 27 bye-elections.
Announcing candidates for the remaining four seats in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its state chief K Surendran in the high-profile Wayanad constituency against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Against the backdrop of a strong agitation for separate statehood, the ruling Congress and the major opposition Telugu Desam Party face a tough challenge in the coming bypolls to 12 assembly seats in Telangana region.
Voting for Meghalaya's Tura parliamentary constituency bypoll began on a peaceful note Thursday where over 5.26 lakh voters in three districts of Garo hill region are expected to exercise their franchise.
Around 75 per cent polling was registered in the byelection to Tamil Nadu Assembly from Sankarankovil (SC) constituency on Sunday and the exercise was 'by and large peaceful', Election officials said.
Several sitting MLAs are dropped by the BJP in the latest list.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
District election officer Mahendra Bahadur Singh said Aman Giri won by a margin of 34,298 votes. He received 1,24,810 votes while Tiwari got 90,512 votes.
The victories with huge margins came as a Diwali gift and a shot in the arm for the nearly six-month-old alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after facing frequent questions about its longevity.
"We are thankful to Baichung Bhutia for sparing his valuable time for us. We are thrilled. We also thank Narendra Singh Dhoni for campaigning for our party, though he has not joined any party after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party," AJSU vice-president Praveen Prabhakar told PTI
The Aam Aadmi Party's MP and lone Lok Sabha member Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday along with party MLA Sheetal Angural, dealing a blow to the party already facing a crisis following the arrest of its leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Shiv Sena on Wednesday took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party for the reverses suffered by it in the bypolls, saying it should learn a lesson and keep its "feet on the ground".
Nirmala Bhuria lost to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, who wrested the tribal-dominated seat from the BJP by a convincing margin of 88,832 votes.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday claimed the Bharatiya Jantea Party candidate Murji Patel withdrew from the Andheri East Assembly bypoll contest after realising that his defeat was imminent.
rivals Congress, JMM and TMC and Samajwadi Party.
The poll panel will now examine whether the symbols are not the same or whether they are not being used by any other party.
Elections to four Lok Sabha seats -- Karimnagar, Hanamkonda, Warangal and Adilabad -- and 18 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh following resignation by Telangana Rashtra Samiti members would be held on May 29. The EC said bypolls to three other Lok Sabha seats -- Hamirpur (HP), Thane (Maharashtra) and Tura (Meghalaya) as also four assembly seats -- Indri, Gohana and Adampur in Haryana and Amritsar South (Amritsar) would take place on May 22.
'The poll body should have taken a decision in a holistic manner rather than passing an interim decision'
The repoll will be held on April 13.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla recognised Rahul Gandhi as the leader of opposition on Wednesday, a day after the Congress communicated its decision to name him for the position to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Election to the Nandigram segment, with nearly 2,87,416 electorate was necessitated following the resignation of Communist Party of India MLA Muhammad Ilyas after a sting operation allegedly exposed his involvement in a corruption case.
The BJP suffered a loss in the voting percentage though it managed win the seat.
The Congress appeared to have bounced back in the state's political landscape after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the AAP in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.
Shiv Sena candidate Anand Paranjpe won the Thane Lok Sabha bypoll, defeating Nationalist Congress Party's Sanjeev Naik.
The Andheri East bypoll is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June.
After being checkmated by the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Janata Dal-United-Congress alliance in the Bihar bypoll, Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that the 'Mahayuti' needs to pull up its socks and refrain from gloating over the 'Modi wave' to fight the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Widespread violence between supporters of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged electoral malpractices in strife-torn Sandeshkhali marred the final phase of Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal on Saturday, resulting in injuries to a number of people.
Clearly alliances will be key for the Congress and the BJP and for that matter the UNPA in 2009 and in the state polls in the Hindi heartland later this year. The just held by-polls have only underscored this.
It will be the first assembly byelection after the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra in June, making it a litmus test of his faction's hold over the Sena's vote bank in Mumbai.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that the defeat of Janata Dal-United in Maharajganj bypoll has no bearing on the National Democratic Alliance.
