NDTV ONLINE

India’s ruling BJP and the opposition INDIA alliance have, so far, achieved a tie in the by-elections to the seven seats that took place on Tuesday. While the BJP has won the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura and Bageswhar in Uttarakhand, the opposition bloc has won in Jharkhand’s Dumri, Puthupally in Kerala and Dhugpuri in West Bengal. The Samajwadi Party, which is a member of the INDIA alliance, is leading in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi constituency. In Tripura, BJP’s Tafajjal Hossain won the Boxanagar seat while the tribal-dominated Dhanpur was won by Bindu Debnath. In Uttarakhand’s Bageswhar, after taking an early lead over the BJP’s Parwati Dass, the Congress party’s Basant Kumar fell behind. Dass defeated Kumar by over 2,400 votes. The by-poll was held after the death of four-time MLA and cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das in April. Delivering a big blow to the ruling CPI(M), Chandy Oommen of the Congress-UDF alliance won the Puthuppally by-election in Kerala by a margin of over 36,000 votes. Ommen gained a clear edge in the first round and retained that position till the counting of votes was completed. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Bebi Devi has won the by-election to the Dumri assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Giridih district.