Setback for Congress in Lok Sabha bypolls

It was a day of set backs for the Congress, with the party defeated in three byelections to the Lok Sabha. Thane in Maharashtra went to the Shiv Sena, Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh to the BJP and Tura in Meghalaya to the NCP. The Congress, however, managed to retain two Assembly seats in Haryana.

In Tura, Delhi lawyer Agatha Sangma, daughter of senior NCP leader Purno A. Sangma, consensus candidate of the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance, defeated the Congress’ Zenith Sangma by 99,855 votes. Ms Sangma, 27, becomes the fourth member of her family in public life:

two of her brothers are MLAs in Meghalaya.

In Hamirpur, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s son Anurag defeated O.P.Rattan of the Congress by 1,74,666 votes. In Thane, the Shiv Sena’s Anand Paranjape defeated Sanjeev Naik of the NCP by 90,872 votes. In Haryana, former chief minister Bhajan Lal won the Adampur Assembly seat.