By polls results: BJP retains Nepanagar Assembly seat in MP, TMC leading in West Bengal

Photo for representation purposes. New Delhi: BJP today retained the Nepanagar Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh with party candidate Manju Dadu defeating her nearest Congress rival Antar Singh Barde by a margin of 42,198 votes. Manju bagged 99,626 votes while Barde got 57,428 votes, an election official said. BJP fielded Manju Dadu, daughter of late MLA Rajendra Shyamlal Dadu whose death in an accident necessitated the bypoll. BJP retained the seat by winning it with a margin of 42,198 votes.Dadu's father had won the election in 2013 by a margin of 22178 RPT 22178 votes. Besides Congress and BJP, the Republican Party of India (A) (nominee Ms Revanta) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ber Singh) also contested the bypoll. The reserved seat (ST) had recorded 71.25 per cent polling during the byelection held on November 19. West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress candidates were way ahead of rivals in the vote count on Tuesday to the two Lok Sabha seats and one assembly seat where by-polls were held on Saturday. The BJP has emerged as a surprise package by moving up to the second place in two out of three constituencies ahead of the Left Front and the Congress. Trinamool Congress ahead in West Bengal  Representational Picture Trinamool Congress nominee Partha Pratim Roy has taken a lead of around 94,000 votes at the end of third round of counting in Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, while BJP's Hem Chandra Burman was running in the second place ahead of Left Front partner All India Forward Bloc's Nripendranath Roy. In Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, Trinamool Congress Dibyendu Adhikari Ahas left behind his nearest rival CPI-M candidate Mandira Panda by two lakh votes at the end of the seventh round of counting. The Trinamool was also comfortably places in the Monteshwar assembly seat of Burdwan, with its candidate Saikat Panja opening up a huge 76000 vote lead at the end of the seventh round of counting over his closest rival Biswajit Poddar of the BJP. CPI-M's Md Osman Goni is Anow in the third place. The Cooch Behar seat fell vacant after the death of Trinamool's Renuka Sinha, while Tamluk has gone to the hustings as the incumbent MP Suvendu Adhikari became a minister in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet. Trinamool lawmaker Sajal Panja's death caused the Monteshwar assembly by-poll. Here are the latest developments below:

• BJP retains Shahdol (ST) LS seat with candidate Gyan Singh defeating Cong's Himadri Singh by over 60,000 votes in a #bypoll in Madhya Pradesh
• BJP's Gyan Singh wins Shahdol seat in Madhya Pradesh
• After 13th round, TMC candidate from Coochbehar Partha Pratim Roy leads by 3,34,552 votes
• TMC candidate Dibyendu Adhikari wins Tamluk Lok Sabh seat defeating his nearest CPI(M) rival Mandira Panda by 4.97 lakh votes.
• Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy has won Nellithope Assembly bypoll.
• BJP retains Nepanagar Assembly seat in MP with party nominee Manju Dadu winning by a margin of 42,198 votes.
• The CPI(M) wins both assembly seats in the Tripura bypoll.
• The TMC candidate Saikat Panja wins Monteswar Assembly bypoll defeating his nearest CPIM rival Md Osman Gani Sarkar by 1,27,127 votes.

Ruling CPI-M wrests one assembly seat, retain another in Tripura The ruling CPI-M-led Left Front on Tuesday wrested one assembly seat from the Congress and retained another in Tripura, increasing its tally in the 60-member assembly to 51. According to election department officials, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) wrested the Scheduled Caste Reserved Barjala seat and retained the Khowai assembly constituency, defeating their nearest rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) respectively, in the by-polls held on November 19. In Barjala constituency CPI-M's youth leader Jhumu Sarkar defeated BJP's Shista Mohan Das, a former bureaucrat, by a margin of 3,374 Votes. Sarkar got 15,769 votes and Das secured 12,395 votes in the seat, an election department official said. The official said that in Khowai seat, CPI-M's Biswajit Datta trounced TMC's Manoj Das, a former Left leader, by a margin of 16,094 votes. Datta bagged 24,810 votes and Das managed 8,716 votes. Erstwhile, main opposition party in Left ruled Tripura, Congress candidates in both Barjala and Khowai secured distant fourth positions. The Barjala seat fell vacant after Congress legislator Jitendra Sarkar resigned on June 6 following an internal feud within the party while the Khowai seat has been vacant since the death of veteran CPI-M legislator Samir Deb Sarkar. Five candidates each contested from the two constituencies. Elections were held on Saturday with over 91 per cent of the 78,400 electorate casting their votes in the two politically important assembly constituencies. Once Tripura's main opposition party Congress' nominee and former Tripura government senior official Rajendra Kumar Das got only 1,063 votes in Barjala and the party's candidate Pranab Biswas secured a mere 696 votes in Khowai. In 2013 general assembly elections, defeating the Congress nominee, CPI-M candidate Samir Deb Sarkar had won the Khowai by a margin of 8,833 votes while Congress nominee Jitendra Sarkar had succeeded in Barjala defeating the CPI-M candidate by a margin of 261 votes. The CPI-M, a dominant partner of the ruling Left Front, secured the Khowai seat five consecutive times while the Left party intermittently won the Barjala seat several times. A former CPI-M legislator, Sarkar, who served as Speaker of the Tripura assembly twice in the past joined the Congress in March 2010 and won the seat in 2013 defeating the CPI-M nominee, resigned from the assembly membership a few months back. After internal feud in the Congress, he rejoined the CPI-M on June 6 this year after resigning from the assembly membership. Political analyst Sanjib Deb said the BJP has become an emerging political force in Tripura. "Due to split in main opposition Congress, the TMC has also become a significant political force in Left ruled Tripura," Deb told IANS. These were the first elections held after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to combat black or untaxed money. They are being watched to see if there is any impact of that decision on elections. (With additional information from PTI and IANS)