NDA wins 7 of 12 bypolls including Muzaffarnagar, Narendra Modi 'happy'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the victory of the BJP and its allies in the bypolls in various states showed that people had reposed faith in the “politics of development”. The NDA constituents’ won seven out of the 12 bypolls whose results were declared on Tuesday.  In tweets after the bypoll results came, PM Modi said it was an “appreciable effort” by the NDA. “Happy to see the victory of BJP and allies in by-polls in northern, southern, eastern, western and central parts of the country. I express gratitude to the people,” he tweeted. “Appreciable effort by NDA. People across India reposed faith in politics of development, development & development. ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’,” Modi added. Reacting to the bypoll results, the BJP said people have shown their preference for its developmental politics over “vote-bank politics” of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party governments. BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma used the UP bypoll results to target the Akhilesh Yadav government, alleging it had “failed” on all fronts and people had voted against it. All the three seats that went to polls were earlier held by SP but it could retain only one with Congress and BJP winning a seat each. BJP also won the Ghaziabad mayoral elections. “By misusing the official machinery and deploying its goons, SP had managed to win in local polls so far. People have given it a stern message now. “A countdown to its government has begun. It has failed on all fronts. Corruption and crime are at a high while public facilities like education and health are in a disarray,” Sharma charged. UP goes to assembly polls early next year. BJP won two out of three seats in Congress-ruled Karnataka and presented the result as people’s “disapproval” of the state government which, Sharma alleged, was “neck-deep” in corruption. In a direct fight, BJP retained Hebbal in Bengaluru and wrested Devadurga in Raichur district from Congress which snatched Bidar in north Karnataka from its arch rival. Of the three seats that went to bypolls due to the death of sitting members, BJP had held two and Congress one. The outcome has come as a blow to Siddaramaiah considering the prestige invested in the contest to wrest the seats from BJP. Bogged down by infighting, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) lost deposit in all the constituencies. In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP won the Maihar assembly seat with party nominee Narayan Tripathi defeating Congress’s Manish Patel by a margin of 27,544 votes. The outcome came as a double jolt for Congress as Tripathi, after winning the seat in 2013 assembly polls, had quit the party to join BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Later, he resigned from the seat which necessitated the by-poll. The victory came as a morale-booster for the BJP after it conceded to the Congress the Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in a by-poll shortly after the drubbing in the Bihar Assembly elections BJP allies Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and RLSP also won a seat each in Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar respectively. Congress, a part of the ruling grand secular alliance in Bihar lost the Harlakhi assembly bypoll to BJP’s ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP). Union minister Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP candidate Sudhansu Sekhar riding on a sympathy wave defeated his Congress rival Mohammad Shabir by a margin of 18,650 votes. Sudhansu Sekhar’s father Basant Kushwaha had died a day before oath taking in November last year. PTI