Trinamool Wins 1 Bengal Bypoll, Ahead In 2; BJP Leads In Uttarakhand

The three West Bengal seats were held by different parties.

The Trinamool Congress' Tapan Deb Singha has won the bypoll to Bengal's Kaliaganj Assembly seat, defeating Kamal Chandra Sarkar of the BJP by more than 2,000 votes. The seat, which had previously been held by the Congress, is one of three for which bypolls were held earlier this week. The other two are Karimganj and Kharagpur Sadar, which are held by the Trinamool and the BJP, respectively. The ruling Trinamool is leading in both these seats.

The results for these bypolls will be declared amidst strain between Trinamool and BJP supporters after a candidate from the latter party was attacked during voting.

The BJP's Karimpur candidate, Jay Prakash Majumdar, was heckled, assaulted and kicked into bushes by the side of the road allegedly by Trinamool supporters.

However, despite the violence - which has continued between workers of the two parties since Lok Sabha polls in April-May - all three seats recorded impressive voter turnouts.

"Average voting percentage was 75.48 per cent. Turnout was 77.17 per cent in Kaliaganj, 67.62 per cent in Kharagpur Sadar and 81.23 per cent in Karimpur," the Election Commission said.

The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Parmatha Nath Ray died earlier this year. The other two seats went to polls after sitting MLAs - Trinamool's Mohua Moitra and BJP's Dilip Ghosh - were elected as members of parliament in May.

Bypolls in Bengal are being conducted six months after the BJP pulled off a stunning result in the national election. After a sustained onslaught by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP tally in the state rose from 2 to 18, while that of the ruling Trinamool Congress plummeted to 22.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is under pressure from a BJP that is growing increasingly influential in the state and with 18 months to go for Assembly elections in the state, these bypolls could indicate an early trend.

All the four major political parties -- the Trinamool, BJP, Congress and the Left-- will hope for a good performance, if not a victory, in these elections and carry the momentum into the state polls

Bypolls were also held for Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh seat where the BJP is leading. The seat fell vacant after the death of sitting MLA and cabinet minister Prakash Pant in June. Mr Pant's wife, Chandra, took on the Congress's Anju Lunthi in the bypoll. Samajwadi Party's Lalit Mohan Bhatt is the third contestant.