Polls 2011: Congress wins two by-polls; BJP suffers defeat in Bellary

Congress today won two of the eight assembly seats for which by-elections were held as the party appeared not to have been hit by a string of scams rocking the UPA coalition at the Centre while BJP bagged one and suffered a humiliating defeat in Karnataka losing its deposit.

The Congress won one seat each in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh while BJP bagged one in HP, where the ruling party and the Opposition Congress wrested one from each other.

JD(U), JMM and HJC retained one seat each in Bihar, Jharkand and Haryana respectively while Odisha's ruling party BJD also retained one seat in the eastern state.

In Karnataka, the ruling BJP suffered a crushing defeat in Bellary, the stronghold of mining magnates and former ministers G Janardhana Reddy, now in jail, and Karunakara Reddy, when former minister B Sreeramulu won by a massive margin. BJP finished third behind the Congress and its candidate lost the deposit. Sreeramulu contested as an Independent after quitting BJP.

In the Lok Sabha by-election, Congress's key UPA ally Trinamool Congress retained the prestigious Kolkata South seat trouncing the CPI(M) keeping the stranglehold on this constituency held by its supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The strength of Trinamool in the lower house has now been restored to 19.

The victory margin of PWD Minister Subroto Bakshi, one of Banerjee's trusted aides and state Trinamool president, even surpassed the party supremo's 2009 winning margin of 2,19,571 votes. The record victory margin of 2,30,099 votes is the highest since the Kolkata South seat was created in 1967.

Congress was able to get a majority on its own in the Haryana assembly when it broke a 30-year-old jinx and wrested the Ratia seat from INLD.

With today's win from the stronghold of Om Prakash Chautala's INLD, the Congress now has 46 seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly and it has come as a boost afer its drubbing in the Hisar by-election which was marked by Team Anna's high voltage campaign against the ruling party.

Renuka Bishnoi, wife of HJC President and the newly elected Hisar MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, retained Adampur seat in Haryana, the bastion of the Bhajan Lal family, defeating her Congress rival. Adampur falls in Hisar Parliamentary segment.

BJP and Congress wrested a seat from each other in Himachal Pradesh.

BJP wrested the Renuka (reserve) Assembly seat from Congress, which struck a blow to the saffron party in its stronghold of Nalagarh.

In Renuka constituency, Hridaya Ram of BJP defeated Vinay Kumar of Congress by 3,526 votes. Ram polled 20,804 votes against 17,278 votes polled by his rival.

In Nalagarh, Lakhvinder Singh Rana of Congress defeated BJP's Gurnam Kaur by 1598 votes. Rana polled 28,797 votes against 27,199 votes polled by his lone rival Gurnam Kaur in a straight contest.

In Orissa, ruling BJD's Subhas Gond won the by-election to the Umerkote Assembly constituency defeating his nearest BJP candidate by 21,061 votes.

Congress candidate Jatindra Gond was pushed to the third position in the triangular contest as he polled 32,877 votes in the tribal-dominated constituency having about 1.65 lakh voters, said Das, who was the district election officer.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Jaiprakash Bhai Patel won the Mandu Assembly bypoll defeating Congress rival Kumar Mahesh Singh by 23,768 votes.

While Patel polled 52,404 votes, Singh secured 28,636. Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantric) candidate Manish Jaiswal finished third with 23,433 votes.

The ruling JD(U) retained Laukaha assembly seat in Bihar defeating RJD.

Sanjay Kumar Sah, son of the former Panchayati Raj, BC and MBC Welfare Minister Hari Prasad Sah whose death in October had forced the bypoll in the assembly seat, polled 64,425 votes as against Mukhtar's Ahmed's 41,662 votes. Congress was in the fourth position.