24 NOVEMBER 2024 AI IN PASTRY MAKING BEST FACE, BEST DRESS JAISWAL, RAHUL HAND INDIA FIRM CONTROL OF PERTH TEST www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 PAGE 16 INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 PAGES 20 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR Mahayuti trounces MVA to win Maharashtra Ruling alliance on course to get over 235 seats; BJP alone is poised to win over 125 seats while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is expected to win more than 50 ASHOK TUTEJA NEW DELHI, 23 NOVEMBER T he BJP-led Mahayuti on Saturday crushed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to retain power in Maharashtra while Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren led the JMMheaded-INDIA bloc to power in the tribal state for a second consecutive term. The handsome victory for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra clearly suggests that the Narendra Modi magic continues to work for the NDA which trounced the Opposition alliance that was clearly a frontrunner in the battle at the hustings for the Lok Sabha in India's wealthiest state just five months back. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde with Deputy CMs Ajit Pawar & Devendra Fadnavis address a press conference at Varsha Bungalow in Mumbai on Saturday. nANI were the star campaigners for the BJP-led alliance. It was also Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's “Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana”, launched in June, that turned the tide in favour of the three-party ruling dispensation. The ruling alliance is on course to win over 235 of the 288 seats in Maharashtra, with the BJP alone poised to win over 125 seats, making it the largest party in the legislature wing of the Mahayuti while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is expected to win TMC sweeps bypolls, winning all six seats; snatches Madarihat from BJP SUBHENDU MAITI KOLKATA, 23 NOVEMBER The ruling Trinamul Congress led by Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal made a clean sweep in the bypolls in six Assembly constituencies including Madarihat (S) that had gone to the Opposition BJP in the Assembly elections in 2021 and 2016. The Madarihat win in particular deals a major blow to the saffron camp in north Bengal ahead of the Assembly polls in the state scheduled to be held in 2026. On Saturday, with the announcements of phenomenal victories one after another for the TMC at the counting centres for the six constituen- cies, jubilant ruling party workers started celebrations. Chief minister and Trinamul chairperson Mamata Banerjee in a social media post expressed her gratitude to the people of the state for their continued support to the party, saying: “I would like to thank and congratulate ‘Maa, Mati, and Manush’ from the bottom of my heart. Your blessing will help us work for the people in the coming days.” Abhishek Banerjee, TMC national general secretary, congratulated the party’s candidates for their victories, claiming they had ‘defied the narratives created by zaminders, the media, and a section of Calcutta High Court to defame Bengal for their own vested interests (sic).” The bypolls were necessitated after the sitting MLAs in the six constituencies ~ Sitai, Madarihat (S), Medinipur, Taldangra, Haroa and Naihati, resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections and won. The bypolls were held in these seats on 13 November. The bypolls were crucial for the contesting parties, particularly for the Trinamul Congress against the backdrop of the R G Kar hospital rape and murder incident and the outrage that it had provoked. Today’s results saw that the ruling party continuing its winning streak from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in which it increased the number of seats in Parliament by bagging 29 out of a total of 42 in the state. In Madarihat (S), a seat that Left Front partner RSP won regularly in every election from 1977 until it was unseated by the BJP in 2016, the TMC for the first time got the taste of victory.Itscandidate,Jayprakash Toppo (above, centre) won with a margin of around 28,100 votes against his nearest rival, BJP candidate Rahul Lohar. TMC’s Rabiul Islam won in Harao with a margin of more than 1,30,000 votes. In Sitai (SC), Trinamul’s Sangita Roy won by a record margin of 1,30,636 votes over BJP candidate Dipak Kumar Roy. In Naihati, TMC candidate Sanat Dey defeated BJP’s Rupak Mitra by 49,270 votes. In Medinipur, Sujoy Hazra of the Trinamul Congress won by a margin of 33,996 votes against nearest contestant Subhajit Roy of the BJP. In Taldangra in Bankura district, Trinamul candidate Falguni Singhababu won by 98,926 votes against his BJP rival Ananya Roy Chakraborty. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the Trinamul Congress had more than 50 per cent votes in Naihati, Haroa and Medinipur seats while it was around 45 per cent in Sitai and Taldangra constituencies. It saw a phenomenal rise in its vote share this time around in the bypolls with around 54 per cent. (More on Pages 2, 3,4) NDA puts up impressive show in Assembly bypolls NIKHIL VYAS NEW DELHI, 23 NOVEMBER In another electoral battle between the NDA and the INDIA bloc, the NDA has put up an impressive show in the Assembly by-elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Assam. The counting of votes for by-polls which were held for 48 Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats across 15 states were held Saturday. The by-polls were held on 13 and 20 November. BJP dominated the Uttar Pradesh bypolls by winning six of the nine Assembly seats with ally RLD winning the In total, the NDA won 25 of 47 bypolls with the BJP winning 20; the INDIA bloc won about 18 seats with Congress winning 7, TMC 6, AAP 3 and Samajwadi Party 2. seventh, while the Samajwadi Party won two seats. In Rajasthan, the BJP won five Assembly seats while the Congress won one, BAP has retained Chorasi while RLP has lost in its bastion in Khimsar. The saffron party registered victory in Ramgarh, Deoli Uniara, Khinvsar, Jhunjhunu and Salumber, while Congress has won Dausa and the BAP has retained its Chorasi seat. The ruling NDA achieved a sweeping victory in the byelections for all four Assembly seats in Bihar, with BJP candidates winning in Tarari and Ramgarh seats, the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular winning Imamganj and a JD-U winning in Belaganj. The BJP-led NDA registered a remarkable victory in Assam bypolls by winning all the five seats in the state. The BJP won three seats ~ Dholai, Behali and Samaguri. BJP’s ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) won the Bongaigaon seat. Another ally, United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) registered a win in the Sidli seat. Bypolls were held for nine Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five seats in Assam, four each in Bihar and Punjab, three seats in Karnataka, two each in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim. Assembly bypolls were also held in one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand. Bypolls were conducted for Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala and Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra. more than 50 seats. The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has also done exceedingly well. The MVA has performed so badly that it will be difficult for any of its constituents to even claim the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. The poll outcome has not only been a jolt for the Congress but also for the Udhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawarled NCP, for whom it appears to be the end of the road. The million dollar question that arises in Maharashtra now is who will be the chief minister of the state. Will Eknath Shinde continue to be the CM or will his deputy and BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, who played a pivotal role in ensuring the saffron party's resounding win, get the coveted position again? (More reports inside) JMM-Congress combine set to form govt in Jharkhand STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 23 NOVEMBER The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance on Saturday retained the mineralrich state with a comfortable margin over its rival BJP, winning as many as 56 seats in the 81-member state Assembly. The BJP-led NDA won only 24 seats despite an all-out blitz that targeted Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s leadership and raised issues like ‘infiltration’ from Bangladesh and corruption on the part of the state government. Mr Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating the BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes and is now set to return as Chief Minister of Jharkhand for a second term, an unprecedented feat for the state. His wife, Kalpana, who played a vital role in revitalising the JMM after Mr Soren’s arrest, won from Gandey by a margin of 17,142 votes defeating BJP’s Muniya Devi. Altogether, JMM contested 43 seats and won 34, the highest-ever seats won by the party. The Congress got 16 seats, RJD 4 and the CPI (ML) secured 2 seats in the INDIA bloc. The BJP won 21 seats to emerge as the second largest party. The state's elections were held in two phases on 13 and 20 November, for all 81 Assembly seats. The state saw a voter turnout of 67.74 per cent across both phases.