Muristek
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, June 3
Results of assembly bypolls held in one constituency each in three states on May 31 have failed to spring any surprises.
The votes counted on Friday showed Pushkar Singh Dhami of the BJ) having registered a landslide victory at Champawat, thereby setting at rest all doubts regarding his continuance as chief minister of Uttarakhand.
Dhami decimated his challengers by securing over 92 per cent of the votes cast. While the BJP candidate got 58,258 votes, his nearest rival, Congress nominee Nirmala Gahtori, received only 3,233 votes (5.16 per cent). Dhami has been declared winner by the election authorities.
In the assembly election held in Uttarakhand in February, Dhami lost to Congress's Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by over 6,500 votes at Khatima from where Dhami had won twice before (2017 and 2012).
Reinstalled by the BJP as chief minister after the party secured majority in the state for a second consecutive term, the bypoll was a "must-win" contest for Dhami.
BJP's Kailash Chandra Gahtori quit the assembly to pave the way for Dhami to contest from Champawat.
Bypolls were held in Thrikkakara constituency of Kerala and Brajarajnagar in Odisha to fill up the vacancies created in the assembly in the wake of the death of the MLAs from these two seats.
The old trick of fielding widows of legislators whose demise necessitated the bypolls has produced the desired results on both seats.
Having secured over 53 per cent of the votes the Congress's Uma Thomas is set to win from Thrikkakara. CPI(M)'s Jo Joseph has secured the second place while AN Radhakrishnan of the BJP has got the third largest share of votes there. Uma Thomas is widow of Congress's PT Thomas who had won the seat in 2021.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Alaka Mohanty is set to be declared victorious in the bypoll for Brajarajnagar seat in Odisha. She has ensured her victory by securing over 63 per cent of the votes.
Mohanty's nearest rival is Congress's Kishore Chandra Patel. The BJP, represented by Radharani Panda, dropped to the fourth position in the contest from being the runner-up in 2019. CPI's Ramesh Kumar Tripathy has emerged as the third-largest vote-getter.
Alaka Mohanty is widow of Kishore Kumar Mohanty, who had won the seat in 2019 as BJD nominee. He died in December last year.