SP loses its Azamgarh, Rampur bastions in Lok Sabha bypolls

AAP candidate loses to  Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) in Sangrur.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday won the byelections to the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, wresting them from the Samajwadi Party, while in a setback, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab lost the contest for the Sangrur parliamentary seat, which was vacated by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in March, to the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

The BJP candidate from Azamgarh, Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, a Bhojpuri actor, defeated Dharmendra Yadav of the SP by a margin of 8,679 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.

Mr. Dinesh had lost to SP president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The seat fell vacant after Mr. Akhilesh won in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election earlier this year.

In Rampur, BJP candidate Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi defeated Mohammed Asim Raja of the SP by a margin of 42,192 votes. The Rampur seat was vacated by SP leader Azam Khan, who also won in the Assembly election.

In Punjab, Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), won the Sangrur bypoll, defeating Gurmail Singh of the AAP by 5,822 votes.

In the Tripura Assembly byelections, Chief Minister Manik Saha of the BJP won from the Town Bardowali seat, while Malina Debnath and Swapna Das of the BJP won from the Jubarajnagar and Surma seats, respectively. Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won from the Agartala seat, defeating his nearest rival Ashok Sinha of the BJP.