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BJP sweeps in Assembly byelections THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep of all the five assembly seats in party-ruled Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand where bypolls were held, while the Trinamool Congress, with the tacit support of the BJP, emerged triumphant in one seat in Manipur. In Jharkhand, Chief Minister Arjun Munda (BJP) defeated the Congress and Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (P) alliance candidate Dasrath Gagrai. The BJP wrested Kukshi and Sonkatch seats in Madhya Pradesh from the Congress. Both the seats were for long considered Congress strongholds. In Kukshi, BJP nominee Mukam Singh Kirade defeated rival Nisha Singhar by over 16,000 votes and in Sonkatch, BJP’s Rajendra Verma won against Arjun Verma of the Congress by over 19,000 votes. The party retained Gujarat’s Khadia seat, its bastion for the last 25 years, when its candidate Bhushan Bhatt emerged victorious defeating Congress’ Jagat Shukla. In Chhattisgarh, ruling BJP’s candidate Kumari Bai Sahu won Sanjari Balod seat beating her nearest rival Mohan Patel of the Congress by nearly 9,500 votes. The electoral battle in Manipur’s Konthoujam constituency saw Trinamool Congress candidate K Sarat prevailing over Congress candidate S. Ranjan by 655 votes. The TC candidate had the tacit support of the BJP and Manipur People’s Party, a regional outfit. (PTI)

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