Aug 21The Congress and its allies on Friday won nine of the 17 seats in assembly by-polls spread over five states. In Tamil Nadu, the win for the Congress and its ally the DMK was largely helped by the boycott of opposition AIADMK and its partners. DMK bagged three seats Cumbum, Burgur and Ilayankudi. The remaining two seats Srivaikuntam and Thondamuthur went to the Congress. DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi attributed the performance to achievements of the UPA Government and his government in the state.Congress's dismal performance in BJP-ruled Karnataka, where by-elections were held for five seats, continued. It was able to retain only Govindarajanagar of the four seats it held but had the consolation of seeing the defeat of Housing minister V Somanna, who defected from the Congress before the Lok Sabha polls.
The blow for Congress was hard in Chitapur where Priyanka Kharge, son of Union Labour Minister M Mallikarjun Kharge, lost to BJP's Valmiki Nayak.
JD-S won two seats retaining Ramnagara and wresting
Chennapatna from Congress and BJP too bagged two. Besides
Chitapur, the BJP won Kollegal.
BJP's strength in the 224-member Karnataka assembly will now go up to 117 and that of JD-S to 27 while Congress tally will decline to 74.
In Uttar Pradesh, BSP put up a good showing and it was a shot in the arm for Chief Minister Mayawati with the ruling party winning three seats,Moradabad, Malihabad and Bidhuna while Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal retained Morena.
Samajwadi party was the worst sufferer in UP as it not only failed to win a single seat but yielded two seats to BSP. Expressing satisfaction over party's impressive performance in by polls on four assembly seats, BSP supremo Mayawati today said that results have proved that her party has not lost its ground in the state.
In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, continued to hold sway by winning both Bowbazar and Sealdah seats earlier held by Congress, which did not field any candidate this time.
In Meghalaya the Congress nominee and Meghalaya Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh won the by-poll to the Laitumkhrah constituency defeating the United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate Malcolm Tariang by a margin of 2327 votes.