BYPOLLS: NO SHOCK, ONLY SWEEP

Dheeraj Kumar, Aritra Singha, Shankar Raj, Manish Godha, Rajesh Moudgil, Rajashekhara S

- NDA WINS ALL, PK's SURAAJ 'ECLIPSED'

With Bihar assembly election less than six months away, INDIA bloc suffered a major jolt when the ruling NDA won all four assembly seats which went to polls on November 13.

NDA maintained its winning streak in Bihar after bagging 30 out of total 40 seats in the last Lok Sabha election.

The alliance's latest victory also saw Bihar BJP once again reposing faith in the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar as state party president and minister Dileep Jaiswal, deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, senior BJP leader and health minister Mangal Pandey visited the official residence of chief minister to exchange pleasantries over the victory of the alliance's candidates in the by-elections.

The bypolls were held in Tarari, Belaganj, Imamganj and Ramgarh seats.

The maiden entry of former poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party into the electoral foray was extremely disappointing as PK's party failed to open its account.

Kishor had fielded his candidates on all four seats.

RULING AAP CLINCHES 3 OUT OF 4 IN PUNJAB

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party won three of the four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak - while the main opposition Congress snatched the Barnala seat from it.

The bypolls to all these four seats necessitated after the incumbent MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in June this year - were held on November 20, last.

The Congress candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhillon snatched the Barnala seat from AAP defeating its Harinder Singh Dhaliwal by a margin of 2,157 votes.