Bihar bypolls, RJD's Neelam Devi retains husband's Mokama seat; BJP wins Gopalganj
Mokama and Gopalganj assembly bypoll results: The Mokama seat fell vacant following the disqualification of RJD MLA Anant Singh after his conviction in an Arms Act case. Singh's wife Neelam Devi was fielded from the seat by the Tejashwi Yadav's party.
Neelam Devi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won the Mokama assembly bypoll, while Kusum Devi of the BJP secured the Gopalganj in Bihar as the results were declared on Sunday.
Neelam Devi defeated her closest rival Sonam Devi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a comfortable margin of more than 16,000 votes. She polled 79,744 votes, while Sonam Devi got 63,003.
Kusum Devi, wife MLA Subhash Singh whose death had necessitated the by-election, beat the nearest RJD rival by a slender margin of fewer than 2,000 votes. Kusum Devi polled 70,032 votes, while RJD's Mohan Gupta got 68,243. Despite an early lead, the BJP witnessed a neck-and-neck fight in the Gopalganj constituency.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM and Mayawati's BSP, often accused of being the BJP's "B team" by the RJD, finished third and fourth respectively, together accounting for more than 20,000 votes.
Notably, BSP candidate Indira Yadav is the wife of Sadhu Yadav, the younger brother of RJD president Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi in Gopalganj. Sadhu Yadav had won the seat in 2000. Yadav has been disqualified from contesting polls after a conviction in a case related to misbehaviour with an IAS officer.
Of the 6.10 lakh voters - (3.31 lakh) and Mokama (2.70 lakh) – 52.3 per cent had exercised their franchise in the two seats on November 3. A total of 619 polling booths were set up in the two constituencies. Fifteen candidates were in the fray - nine in Gopalganj and six in Mokama.
The Mokama seat fell vacant following the disqualification of RJD MLA Anant Singh after his conviction in an Arms Act case. Singh's wife Neelam Devi was fielded from the seat by the Tejashwi Yadav's party. Neelam Devi defeated Sonam Devi by a comfortable margin of more than 16,000 votes. She polled 79,744 votes, while Sonam Devi got 63,003.
“My victory was certain. I had already said that there is nobody else in my contest. It was just a formality. Mokama is the land of Parshuram, people won't get lured. Vidhayak ji (Anant Singh) served people. They are giving the result now,” news agency ANI quoted Neelam Devi as saying.
Mokama has been the stronghold of Singh since 2005. He won the seat twice on the JD(U) tickets. Singh fought as an RJD candidate in the 2020 elections and retained the seat. But he was disqualified from the assembly following his conviction in the criminal case.
BJP leader BL Santhosh congratulated Kusum Devi her big victory.
“Huge wins for @BJP4India candidates Sri Aman Giri in Gol Gorakhnath , UP & Smt Kusum Devi in Gopalganj , Bihar . Congratulations Team @BJP4UP & Team @BJP4Bihar. Victory is specially sweet in Bihar where BJP was up against united ruling coalition,” Santhosh tweeted.
This was the first electoral face-off between the ruling Grand Alliance (GA) and the opposition BJP in Bihar after the change of government in August this year, when chief minister Nitish Kumar’s party JD(U) snapped ties with the saffron party and joined hands with Lalu Prasad’s RJD-led coalition, comprising the Congress and other parties, to form a new government.
