CPI-M candidate Jhumu Sarkar celebrates his victory in the assembly by-elections in Tripura
Tripura's ruling CPM has won both assembly seats for which by-elections were held, retaining one and wresting the other from the Congress. It defeated nearest rival the BJP in Barjala and the Trinamool in Khowai.
The Barjala by-election was held because the sitting Congress lawmaker Jitendra Sarkar had resigned in June this year. The Congress could only poll 804 votes in the seat it had held till a few months ago.
CPI-M candidate Jhumu Sarkar won, beating the BJP's Shistamohan Das by 3,374 votes.
In Khowai assembly constituency, CPI-M candidate Biswajit Datta beat his nearest rival Manoj Das of the Trinamool Congress by 16,047 votes. By-elections were held in Khowai because the sitting MLA Samir Deb, a veteran CPM leader, died.
It was a wipeout for the Congress. The party, which came in second in Khowai in the last state elections in 2013, could get only 696 votes. The Congress had split in Tripura in June this year, when six of its 10 lawmakers split and joined the Trinamool Congress.
The two seats won today add to the CPM's big kitty in Tripura of 50 of the 60 seats in the state assembly. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, 67, has been chief minister of the state since 1998.
By-elections were held on Saturday last for four parliament and 10 assembly constituencies in six states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu -
and one union territory, Puducherry.
Counting was held today. While the
BJP has posted big wins in Madhya Pradesh and Assam, both states it rules, the Trinamool Congress is on its way to retaining all its seats in West Bengal.