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BJP loses Bengal seat, but gets 30% vote

Only 2% voter turnout in J&K

BJP wins Delhi's Rajouri Garden bypoll, AAP candidate loses deposit

NEW DELHI: The results of the assembly bypolls in eight states delivered a significant boost to BJP , which won five of 10 seats, wresting two seats from rivals and pushing the Left to third position in West Bengal. For Congress, the consolation was retaining two seats in Karnataka and another in Madhya Pradesh.The poll results indicate that BJP has retained the winning momentum it had generated with wins in a string of civic elections in the last few months and its recent big successes in winning UP and Uttarakhand and forming governments in Goa and Manipur despite finishing second, behind Congress.BJP won one seat each in Assam and Rajasthan, retained one in Madhya Pradesh, came second behind a dominant Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and won a gratifying victory over Congress and AAP in Delhi.BJP MP Parvesh Verma, who arrived at the counting centre at Hari Nagar with supporters to cheer up party workers, told TOI: "AAP has lost its deposit in the elections. People have voted for Narendra Modi policies."The saffron party also retained Bhoranj and Dhemaji in Himachal Pradesh and Assam, respectively. PM Narendra Modi thanked voters in a tweet for their “unwavering faith in the politics of development and good governance”. The BJP also saw the results as a vindication of its unapologetic stance on enforcing restrictions on cow slaughter and decisions of its state governments, such as “anti-Romeo” squads.The win in Dholpur in Rajasthan is significant as the seat had eluded the saffron party despite chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s links with the erstwhile ruling Jat clan of the one-time state. The decision to put up the wife of a former BSP MLA worked and the veteran Congress contestant lost.The win in Himachal Pradesh comes ahead of assembly elections later this year where BJP is challenging Congress’s veteran CM Virbhadra Singh who has been facing graft allegations. The Assam result indicates consolidation after BJP formed a government for the first time in the state. The JMM success in Jharkhand, however, comes amid reports that the BJP government might be hurt by its initiatives to change vital tribal land laws.Trinamool Congress underlined its dominance in West Bengal where it won the Kanthi Dakshin seat, polling 56% of the vote, but BJP’s impressive second rank finish with 30% votes underlines its growth at the expense of the Left which polled 10%.The West Bengal results come in the background of aggressive shows of strength by Hindutva groups during recent Ram Navami celebrations and incidents of communal violence that kept tensions on the boil.BJP missed out on a better margin with Congress winning by 858 votes in Ater in Madhya Pradesh.Despite 300 cops at each polling station, separatists in Kashmir succeeded in paralysing the election process completely for the first time since 1989.People in Budgam chose to stay indoors, ending up recording the state’s most embarrassing turnout of 2% during repolling in 38 booths.The separatists’ boycott call, widely advertised through mosque loudspeakers, WhatsApp and calls, was highly effective as out of 35,169, only 709 votes were cast. Gondipora of Beerwah segment boycotted the poll completely.