NEW DELHI, 17 October 2004 — The Congress party has improved its tally in the by-elections, as it has wrested three seats in Gujarat and two in Punjab in the two assemblies. The party candidate Narasingrao Surwanshi has also won the Bidar Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka by defeating BJP’s Ramachandra Arya.
RJD’s Pappu Yadav has defeated his JD-U rival in the Madhepura Lok Sabha by-election in Bihar.
Congress romped home in nine assembly constituencies and BJP in five while Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed won the prestigious Pahalgam seat as results started pouring in for by-elections held in 16 states. Congress bagged three assembly seats in Gujarat, two in Punjab and one each in Rajasthan, Nagaland, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh.
Its archrival BJP emerged triumphant in two seats in Gujarat and one each in Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan out of 16 assembly elections. The remaining two seats were shared by ruling PDP in Jammu and Kashmir and MIM in Andhra Pradesh.
PDP patron Sayeed humbled his National Conference rival Rafi Mir in Pahalgam to enter the state assembly after a gap of 17 years.
In Bihar’s Madhepura Lok Sabha by-election, the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate, Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav was declared winner over his Janata Dal-United rival R.P. Yadav by a margin of 2,08,859 votes.
The by-election for Madhepura was necessitated as RJD supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav vacated the seat and opted to retain the Chhapra seat.
The voting for the poll in Madhepura was held on Oct. 13. Ranjan is lodged in the high security Beur central jail in Patna at present in connection with the murder of CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar
Meanwhile, the Ruling BJP and opposition Congress shared a seat apiece in the Rajasthan assembly by-elections. BJP wrested Behrod seat from Congress which snatched Merta seat from the saffron party.
In the Kapurthala by-election, Congress candidate Sukhjinder Kaur Rana defeated her nearest SAD rival Raghubir Singh, while Love Lumar Goldy of the Congress won the Garhshankar seat defeating BJP`s Mahinder Pal Singh Mann by a margin of 18,080 votes.
In a major boost to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, the ruling Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal coalition won five of the 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh while the BJP and BSP took one seat each.
The Congress, however, has retained both the assembly seats of Delhi for which by-elections were conducted on Oct. 13.
The opposition Congress in Nagaland retained two assembly seats and lost one to Nagaland People’s Front (NPF), a major partner of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), in the by-elections to three assembly segments.
Meanwhile, thanking the people of Maharashtra for reposing confidence in the Congress-NCP alliance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that the country has rejected divisive and communal forces.
“The people of Maharashtra have given a crushing defeat to communal forces, to forces which wanted to divide our country on the basis of religion and caste,” Manmohan told reporters at his Race Course Road residence shortly after the assembly election results were out in Maharashtra.
He said this election assumed added significance as it reinforced the verdict that was given in May 2004 by the people in the Lok Sabha poll. The electorate in Maharashtra were “very alert”, he said. “It is a very happy day for the Congress and its allies,” the prime minister said.
He thanked Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the extensive campaign undertaken by her and the support the party got from NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as also his colleagues and workers of the parties and its allies. “They deserve our heartiest congratulations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi remained noncommittal on the issue of giving the chief ministership to the NCP, which has emerged as the single largest party in the Maharashtra Assembly. Asked whether she would adopt the Kashmir formula on the leadership issue, the Congress president said that Kashmir was a special case but “we will sit together and decide”.
Asked about the factors that had led the ruling alliance to victory, she said that it was because the government had done “some good work”. She said: “We won because the Maharashtra government did a very good job and the people there were happy with its performance.``
Meanwhile, a jubilant NCP chief Sharad Pawar too did not want to spoil the party yesterday and get into a controversy over the chief ministership.
“We successfully defeated the communal forces led by BJP, and we are happy. We are not running after posts, Congress is our major partner so the final decision lies with it,” said Pawar.
