NEW DELHI, June 7: The BJP lost to Congress or its allies in the INDIA bloc in at least 26 reserved Lok Sabha seats across the country where it had sitting MPs, with some of them Union ministers.
The BJP, however, retained at least 42 reserved constituencies and on many other such seats some of its NDA allies such as the Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) emerged victorious.
The losing candidates from the saffron party in the recently concluded general elections included Union ministers Arjun Munda, Kaushal Kishore, Nisith Pramanik and Bharati Pravin Pawar.
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Among the NDA candidates, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal won from Bikaner, Chirag Paswan from Hajipur and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi from Gaya.
For the 543-member Lok Sabha, polls were held in 542 seats with Surat being won by the BJP uncontested. Of the total seats in the lower house of Parliament, 131 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (84) and Scheduled Tribes (47).
In Bihar’s Sasaram (SC) seat which had a BJP MP, Congress’ Manoj Kumar won by defeating the ruling party’s candidate Shivesh Kumar by a margin of 19,157 votes.
Kumari Selja of the Congress dislodged the BJP from Haryan’s Sirsa (SC) seat previously held by Sunita Duggal. She defeated Ashok Tanwar of the BJP by a margin of 2.68 lakh votes.
In Jharkhand, Nalin Soren of the JMM snatched the Dumka (ST) seat from the BJP by defeating Sita Murmu with a margin of 22,527 votes. In Khunti (ST), sitting MP Arjun Munda lost to Congress’ Kali Charan Munda by a margin of over 1.49 lakh votes while in Lohardaga (ST) seat, Sukhdeo Bhagat of the grand old party defeated BJP’s Samir Oraon.
Telangana’s ruling Congress has bagged the lion’s share of reserved Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. Of the five reserved seats (three SC and two ST), the Congress won all the three SC and one ST reserved seats. The BJP emerged victorious in one ST-reserved constituency.
The Congress won Peddapalle (SC), Nagarkurnool (SC) Warangal (SC) and Mahabubabad (ST) constituencies, while BJP retained the Adilabad (ST) seat.
In Karnataka, the sitting MP of Gulbarga (SC) seat and BJP leader Umesh G Jadhav was defeated by the Congress’ Radhakrishna. The grand old party also wrested Bellary (ST) and Chamarajanagar (SC) seats from the BJP in the southern state.
In Maharashtra, the Congress dislodged the sitting BJP MPs in Nandurbar (ST), Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST), and Dindori (ST) seats. Sitting MP from Amravati (SC) seat and BJP candidate Navneet Ravi Rana was defeated by Balwant Baswant Wankhade of the main opposition party that also won Latur (SC) and Solapur (SC) seats held earlier by the BJP.
In Rajasthan, the Congress wrested Ganganagar (SC), Bharatpur (SC), Karauli-Dholpur (SC) and Dausa (ST) constituencies from the BJP, while the Banswara (ST) seat was won by the Bharat Adivasi Party.
Punjab’s Hoshiarpur (SC) seat was picked by the AAP with Congress and BJP finishing in second and third positions, respectively. In the Daman and Diu (ST) constituency, the sitting BJP MP was defeated by an Independent.
In Uttar Pradesh, Union minister Kishore lost his Mohanlalganj (SC) seat to the Samajwadi Party’s R K Chaudhary. SP candidates also unseated sitting BJP MPs from Etawah (SC), Jalaun (SC) and Kaushambi (SC) seats, while the Congress wrested the Barabanki (SC) seat from the ruling party.
SP also wrested the Machhlishahr (SC) seat from the BJP while Apna Dal (Soneylal) lost the Robertsganj (SC) constituency to the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
In West Bengal, Union Minister and BJP leader Nisith Pramanik lost the Cooch Behar (SC) seat to Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia of the Trinamool Congress. The ruling party in the state also wrested the Jhargram (ST) from the BJP.
The BJP retained the Karimganj (SC) seat in Assam, as well as the Janjgir-Champa (SC), and Kanker (ST) seats in Chhattisgarh.
In Gujarat, the saffron party retained Kachch (SC), Ahmedabad West (SC) and Bardoli (ST), among other seats. In Himachal Pradesh, Shimla (SC) seat was retained by sitting BJP MP Suresh Kashyap while in Jharkhand, the Palamau (SC) was again won by the BJP.
The BJP also won the reserved seats in Madhya Pradesh, where it made a clean sweep in the Lok Sabha polls.
While the BJP has got 240 seats, the NDA has bagged 293 seats and enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha after the high-stakes general elections. (PTI)
