Uma licks dust in home turf, BJP wins Vidisha, loses Talasara

Bhopal/Rourkela, Nov 2 (UNI) The BJP today retained the prestigious Vidisha Lok Sabha seat and inflicted a body blow to the fledgling Bharatiya Jan Shakti of Uma Bharti in Malehra Assembly constituency on the party's electoral debut in her home state of Madhya Pradesh.

In another dramatic turn of events, the ruling BJD-BJP combine suffered a setback at the hands of the Congress in Talasara (ST) Assembly seat in coastal Orissa.

The BJP candidate from Vidisha and Madhya Pradesh Public Health and Engineering Minister Rampal Singh was victorious from Vidisha Lok Sabha seat which was vacated by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on his election to the state Assembly.

Bharatiya Jan Shakti President Uma Bharti's hopes were dashed in Malehra as BJP candidate Kapoor Chand Ghuwara defeated his nearest BJS rival Rekha Yadav by about 3,000 votes in a multi-cornered contest in the assembly by-election.

It was a major setback for Ms Bharti, who had won from Malehra on BJP ticket during December 2003 elections defeating her nearest Congress rival Jagdish Shukla by over 31,000 votes.

However, BJP nominating Mr Ghuwara, who was formerly in the CPI and had ended at the third spot during previous assembly election was widely criticised within the party.

In the past eight Assembly elections since 1977, including the by-election, the BJP had emerged victorious from the seat five times.

The BJP candidate from Vidisha and Madhya Pradesh Public Health and Engineering Minister Rampal Singh defeated his Congress rival Mrs Rajshri Singh by a margin of more than 85,000 votes.

BJS state President Raghunandan Sharma came at the third place.

The by-election for Vidisha, considered a BJP stronghold, was necessitated when Mr Chouhan vacated the seat following his election to the state assembly. Mr Chouhan had been elected five times from Vidisha, a former constituency of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In Orissa, the ruling BJD-BJP combine suffered a setback as Opposition Congress retained the Talasara (ST) Assembly seat, where a by-election was held on October 30.

Congress candidate Dr Prafulla Majhi was declared elected, defeating his BJP rival Sahadeb Khaka by a margin of 2574 votes.

This was the first by-election result during the six years tenure of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in which the ruling alliance partners lost to the Opposition.

Prior to Talsara by-election, Orissa witnessed as many as five by-elections, of which four went in favour of BJD and one for BJP.

UNI TEAM SHB RP BD1824