"BJP's hardcore voters didn't support JD-U candidate in Rupauli assembly bypoll": Pappu Yadav

Patna (Bihar) [India], July 13 (ANI): After an independent candidate won the Rupauli assembly bye-election, independent MP Pappu Yadav on Saturday said that even the hardcore supporters of the BJP did not vote for the JD-U candidate in this constituency.
An independent candidate Shankar Singh secured victory in Rupauli. He defeated JDU's Kaladhar Prasad Mandal by a vote margin of 8,246. Singh garnered 68,070 votes while Mandal secured 59,824 votes. Meanwhile, RJD's Bima Bharti also lost the bye-election. She had secured 30,619 votes.
Speaking with the reporters, Yadav said, "Nitish Kumar's cabinet did this work (giving ticket to Kaladhar Prasad Mandal, a member of Scheduled Caste) as part of a big conspiracy to defeat the extremely backward caste seat."
He added, "BJP's hardcore voters did not give a single vote to JDU. Rajput community people did not give even 10 votes to JDU..."
The bye-election in Rupaul was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for JD(U) several times in the past but quit the party recently to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket.
Notably, the counting of votes for the 13 legislative assembly seats spread across seven states began on Saturday morning. Polling took place on July 10 for the assembly seats in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.
The Election Commission held the by-elections in one seat of Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh, two seats of Uttarakhand, three seats of Himachal Pradesh, and four seats of Uttarakhand.
The constituencies included Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh; Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala in West Bengal; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; and Rupauli in Bihar. (ANI)