Bihar: JD-U wins Islampur seat

The JD-U nominee Pratima Sinha emerged victorious on Wednesday in the by-poll to Islampur assembly constituency in Bihar's Nalanda district, defeating United Progressive Alliance-backed CPI Rakesh Roshan by over 9,000 votes.

The by-poll for the seat was necessitated after the election of sitting JD-U MLA Ram Swaroop Prasad to the Lok Sabha from the Nalanda Parliamentary constituency.

The Nalanda Parliamentary seat was vacated by Nitish Kumar following his election to the state legislative council on becoming the chief minister.

While JD-U had fielded Pratima Sinha, widow of a former Congress MLA from Islampur, Pankaj Sinha, the UPA backed CPI candidate Rakesh Roshan.

Also in the fray were CPI-ML's Umesh Kumar, JD-U rebel and Independent candidate Bharat Prasad Singh, Yogendra Prasad and Saryug Prasad Sanghasth (both Independents).

JD-U nominee Ram Swaroop Prasad had defeated CPI's Rakesh Roshan by over 19,000 votes in November 2005 election to the seat.

The ruling NDA described the victory in favour of the development work being carried out by the present government in Bihar.