The Hindu : Congress loses Ernakulam, BJP wrests Solapur

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003

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Congress loses Ernakulam, BJP wrests Solapur

By K.V. Prasad

The Left Democratic Front-backed candidate, Sebastian Paul, with his supporters after winning the byelection to the Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency in Kochi on Monday. — Photo: H. Vibhu

NEW DELHI SEPT. 29. The Congress today suffered a jolt with the party losing the by-elections to the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Ernakulam in Kerala and Solapur in Maharashtra. The victory of its candidate in the Hungund Assembly bypoll in Karnataka was the only saving grace.

The Congress suffered reverses in the Lok Sabha byelections when both its candidates, Anandrao Devkate (Solapur) and M.O. John (Ernakulam) were defeated.

The Left Democratic Front-backed Independent, Sebastian Paul, trounced Mr. John by 22,000 votes, with the result indicating that inner-party troubles between the official camp and dissidents eventually took its toll.

Adding to the embarrassment of the loss of the Ernakulam seat was the huge margin of defeat handed down by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil to Mr. Devkate, the Dairy Development Minister in Sushil Kumar Shinde's Democratic Front Government, in Solapur. Mr. Mohite-Patil, who is the brother of another Maharashtra Minister, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil of the Nationalist Congress Party, won by 1,22,817 votes.

Mr. Mohite-Patil polled 3,52,360 votes as against Devkate's 2,29,543 votes.

Although the failure of the Congress to retain these two Lok Sabha seats does not deplete the party's overall strength of 109 MPs after the exit of Mr. Shinde and the death of George Eden, the BJP's tally goes up by one to 184. The number of Independents in the House stands at seven after these results.

The Congress claimed that the party had an "inkling about internal problems" in Kerala and had appointed a three-member panel to go into instances of "anti-party" activities. The party spokesperson, S. Jaipal Reddy, said the Congress would await the report of the panel before taking appropriate action.

On the other hand, the party expressed "surprise" over Mr. Devkate's defeat. Mr. Reddy said the central leadership has asked Mr. Shinde and the State Congress chief, Ranjit Deshmukh, to submit a report. The party did not expect the reverse to cast a shadow over the functioning of the coalition in Maharashtra.

In the byelections held for six Assembly seats, barring an upset in Uttarapara (West Bengal), the rest were retained by the respective parties. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) scored a major victory when its candidate, Jyoti Krishna Chatterjee, wrested the Uttarapara seat defeating Trinamool Congress' Indrajit Ghosh by 16,178 votes.

Consolation for Cong.

In Karnataka, Gauramma of the Congress retained the seat held by her late husband, S.R. Kashappanavar, by defeating BJP's M.S. Patil by 10,299 votes while in Vemagal, Krishna Byregowda of the All India Progressive Janata Dal, retained the seat by trouncing Venkatamuniyappa of the Congress by 11,283 votes. The former Janata Dal leader, C. Byre Gowda's death had necessitated the bypoll. In Andhra Pradesh, Mohammed Moqtada Khan of the Majlis Ittehadul Musilmeen retained the Karwan Assembly seat defeating Baddam Balareddy of the BJP. In Orissa, the ruling Biju Janata Dal candidate, Sanjeeb Sahoo, retained the Birmaharajpur seat by defeating Pushpanjali Pradhan, Independent, by 27,141 votes while in Meghalaya, the BJP's Jopsimon Phanbun won the Laban seat by trouncing the NCP's Sonber Shullai by over 1,600 votes.

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