Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and BJP President Rajnath Singh offering sweets to each other after a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

In a major boost to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the party's prime ministerial race, the BJP on Wednesday swept the six bypolls to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the state while his detractor Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suffered a blow while Congress drew a blank in four states.

Wresting all the six seats from Congress in Gujarat, the BJP won the Lok Sabha bypolls in Porbandar and Banaskantha with a margin of over 1.28 lakh and 71,000 votes respectively and bagged the Assembly seats of Limbadi, Morva Hadaf, Jetpur and Doraji by handsome margins.

Views: No better time for a Narendra Modi win

Interestingly, the BJP candidate Vithhal Radadia, who defected from Congress after a controversy last year when he brandished a gun at a toll booth threatening the cashier, won the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat, despite widespread national condemnation for his goon-like behaviour then.

Banaskantha went to Haribhai Chaudhry of BJP.

The results came as a boost to Modi in the race for prime ministership in BJP, whose National Executive will be meeting in Goa this weekend when he may be made the head of the party's campaign committee for the next year's Lok Sabha polls.

The defeat of ruling JD(U) in Bihar was a major victory for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose party won the Lok Sabha by-election from Maharajganj with a margin of over 1.37 lakh votes.

Maharajganj, held by JD(U) in 2009 general elections, was now secured by RJD's Prabhunath Singh who polled over 3.81 lakh votes. JD(U) candidate P K Shahi got over 2.44 lakh votes and Congress candidate Jitendra Swami came a poor third with over 22,000 votes.

In the lone Lok Sabha by-election in Howrah in West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress retained the seat with a margin of over 27,000 votes defeating the nearest CPI(M) rival nudging the Congress to the third spot.

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