Rush Hour: BJP, AAP retain seats in Assembly bye-polls, SP expels 3 MLAs for cross-voting and more

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The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party retained one seat each in the Assembly bye-elections in Gujarat. The BJP won the Kadi constituency, while AAP leader Gopal Italia defeated the Hindutva party in Visavadar.

In Kerala’s Nilambur constituency, the Congress defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In Punjab, the ruling AAP retained the Ludhiana West constituency, defeating the Congress. The Trinamool Congress also retained the Kaliganj seat in West Bengal, defeating the BJP. Read on.

The Samajwadi Party expelled three MLAs in Uttar Pradesh who had cross-voted in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party during Rajya Sabha elections in February 2024.

The three legislators – Abhay Singh from Gosaiganj, Rakesh Pratap Singh from Gauriganj and Manoj Kumar Pandey from Unchahar – were among seven party members who had cross-voted. This had led to the defeat of one of the three candidates put forward by the Samajwadi Party.

With this, the party has 104 MLAs in the 403-member Legislative Assembly.

The party said that a “grace period” given for the three MLAs to have a “change of heart” was now over. The grace period remained in...

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