PATNA, 10 November 2006 — The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) retained both the parliamentary seats in Bihar where by-elections were held on Nov. 6. Its candidates — Syed Shahnawaz Hussain of BJP in Bhagalpur and Ram Swaroop Prasad of the Janata Dal United in Nalanda parliamentary constituencies, defeated their rivals .
In neighboring Jharkhand state, former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi retained the Koderma parliamentary seat as an independent candidate defeating his nearest Congress party rival Manoj Yadav by a record margin of 1,94,140 votes.
The by-election for the Koderma seat was also held on Nov. 6 and was necessitated following Marandi’s resignation from the Parliament after his exit from the BJP.
Shahnawaz Hussain defeated his nearest Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) rival and former Bihar minister, Shakuni Chaudhury by a margin of 55,611 votes. CPM’s Subodh Rai stood third in the race. Ram Swaroop trounced his nearest RJD-backed independent rival Arun Kumar by a margin of over 1,17,752 votes.
