 "aiadmk")
Results of the two Lok Sabha and 51 Assembly seats were mixed for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Opposition. An undercurrent, however, was some of the turncoats losing in the bypolls.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained the Satara Lok Sabha in Maharashtra, while the Lok Janshakti Party, an ally of the BJP, retained the Samastipur seat. NCP's Shriniwas Patil defeated BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara. Bhosale, a descendant of Maratha warrior king Shivaji, quit the NCP last month and resigned from his Lok Sabha seat to join the BJP, which fielded him on the seat.
It was in Satara on the penultimate day of campaigning on October 18 that NCP chief Sharad Pawar had delivered his speech drenched in rain, which led to much sympathy for him. "(Sharad) Pawar saheb had fielded him from Satara Lok Sabha seat, respecting the throne. But Bhosale betrayed Pawar sahib. Now people have voted him out," Patil said.
In Gujarat, of the six seats where bypolls were held, the BJP and the Congress were leading on three seats each. The BJP's OBC leader Alpesh Thakor lost from Radhanpur seat. He had won the seat in 2017 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket. His close aide Dhavalsinh Jhala, who too switched over to the BJP, also lost the by-election from Bayad Assembly seat.
Tamil Nadu
The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu won both the seats that went to bypolls on October 21, while the Congress won the lone seat that went to polls in Puducherry. The AIADMK candidates won the Vikravandi and Nanguneri Assembly seats while the Congress won the Kamaraj Nagar seat in Puducherry. AIADMK candidates won the Vikravandi and Nanguneri seats with healthy margins.
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Neither of the two seats was with the AIADMK. The Vikravandi bypoll was announced following the death of DMK legislator K Rathamani in June, while the Nanguneri seat fell vacant after Congress legislator H Vasanthakumar got elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned.
Bihar
In Bihar, the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had a dismal performance in bypolls to five Assembly seats, which were touted as the "semi-final" before the Assembly polls in 12 months' time. However, Lok Janshakti Party's (LJP's) Prince Raj won the Samastipur Lok Sabha seat comfortably. The AIMIM won the Kishanganj seat, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal has won in Simri Bakhtiarpur and Belhar seats.
Uttar Pradesh
There was good news for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, with the party winning seven of the 11 seats that had bypolls, while its ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) won one. The Samajwadi Party won three.
Others
In Telangana, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) wrested the Huzurnagar seat from the Congress. In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress won the Assembly bypoll to Mandawa seat while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) retained the Khinwsar constituency. In Sikkim, the BJP won two seats and the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha one.
