Trinamool congress candidate wins by-election in Manipur

Imphal: Trinamool Congress candidate K Sarat was on Thursday elected to the Konthoujam Assembly constituency in Manipur's Imphal West district after a by-election, official sources said.

Trinamool Congress candidate K Sarat got 9592 votes, Indian National Congress candidate S Ranjan got 8937 votes, while independent candidate Kh Ranjit got 3831 votes.

BJP also won the by-elections to the Sonkatch Assembly constituency today with party nominee Rajendra Verma defeating Arjun Verma of Congress by over 19,000 votes.

The BJP win is remarkable for the fact that both Kukshi and Sonkatch seats were considered to be traditional Congress bastions for a long time. The ruling party won in Sonkatch after 15 years.

Reacting to the election results, Madhya Pradesh BJP President, Prabhat Jha said that the victories indicated the downfall of Congress.

"The BJP has won because of a strong organisation, popularity of the Chief Minister and the development works undertaken by the state government," Prabhat said.

He said BJP was now winning those seats which it had lost to the Congress in November 2008 Assembly polls and this was a good sign for his party.