Assembly bypolls: AAP retains 2 seats in Punjab, Gujarat; Cong wins Nilambur seat in Kerala

New Delhi: AAP's Gopal Italia on Monday won from Gujarat's Visavadar assembly constituency and his party also retained Punjab's Ludhiana West seat while the Congress-led UDF wrested Nilambur from the ruling LDF in Kerala, according to results of assembly bypolls in four states.

The ruling BJP in Gujarat retained the Kadi seat, while the Trinamool Congress was leading in the Kaliganj assembly seat in West Bengal's Nadia district.

The bypolls in the five constituencies were held on June 19.

Italia, the former president of the Gujarat unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), defeated his nearest rival, BJP candidate Kirit Patel, in Visavadar seat of Junagadh district by a margin of 17,554 votes, according to data shared by the Election Commission.

Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007. The seat fell vacant in December 2023 after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.

Punjab's ruling AAP retained the Ludhiana West Assembly seat with its candidate Sanjeev Arora defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu by a margin of 10,637 votes.

Arora secured 35,179 votes while Ashu got 24,542 votes, according to the Election Commission data. BJP's Jiwan Gupta polled 20,323 votes while the Shiromani Akali Dal's nominee Parupkar Singh Ghuman got 8,203 votes.

The byelection was necessitated following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.

Thanking the voters, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said that people are fed up with the BJP in Gujarat and have rejected both the Congress and BJP in the byelection.

"Both the parties, Congress and BJP, contested the elections together in both places. Both of them had the same objective - to defeat AAP. But people rejected both these parties in both the places," he said in a post on X.

BJP's Rajendra Chavda bagged the Kadi seat of Mehsana district, reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates, by a margin of 39,452 votes over Congress' Ramesh Chavda.

The Kadi seat fell vacant in February following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.

In Kerala, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government received a setback as the opposition Congress-led UDF wrested the Nilambur assembly constituency from it by a margin of 11,077 votes.

Congress' Aryadan Shoukath, the son of the late Congress stalwart Aryadan Muhammed, defeated CPI(M) state secretariat member M Swaraj in the fiercely fought byelection.

It is the fourth byelection defeat for the Marxist party-led Left Democratic Front during the ongoing tenure of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government. The LDF earlier lost in Puthuppally, Palakkad and Thrikkakara Assembly segments.

The ruling CPI(M) said it accepted the people's ruling.

Significantly, it is the first time the LDF has lost a seat held by it to its political rivals.

The Nilambur seat fell vacant after LDF-backed independent and two-time MLA P V Anvar resigned, setting off a heated political contest in the forest-fringe constituency.

Swaraj said the LDF would closely examine the results but rejected suggestions of anti-incumbency against the Left government.

Shoukath said the outcome was expected.

"It was a victory anticipated by the people of Kerala -- a major win against the LDF government," he said.

Independent candidate and two-time legislator P V Anvar delivered a strong performance in the Nilambur by-election, surprising both the UDF and the LDF.

For the Congress-led UDF, a win here would provide a much-needed boost ahead of the Assembly polls next year.

In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress was leading by over 19,000 votes in the by-election to the Kaliganj assembly seat in Nadia district.

After seven rounds of counting, TMC candidate Alifa Ahamed secured 32,308 votes, while her nearest rival, Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh, backed by the CPI(M), bagged 13,144 votes.

BJP nominee Ashis Ghosh was trailing in the third position, securing 11,987 votes, election officials said.

The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of sitting TMC MLA Nasiruddin Ahamed in February this year. His daughter, Alifa Ahamed, has been fielded by the party.