Dealing a blow to opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janshakti Party combine and the Congress once again, the ruling Janata Dal-United on Monday retained the Daraunda assembly constituency seat.
JD(U) candidate Kavita Singh defeated her nearest RJD candidate Parmeshwar Singh by 20,092 votes.
Singh, the daughter in-law of the former MLA Jagmato Devi, polled 51,754 votes as against 31,662 votes secured by the RJD candidate who was supported by the party's strongmen Md Shahabuddin and Prabhunath Singh, besides the LJP.
The Congress candidate Kalika Sharan Singh and the CPI(M-L) nominee Jainath Yadav stood a distant third and fourth polling 4238 and 3754 votes respectively.
Siwan's district magistrate-cum-returning officer Lokesh Kumar Singh announced the result after counting of votes held amid tight security arrangements.
There were as many as nine candidates, including three women, in the bypoll for Daraunda assembly seat that was held on October 13 in which 44 per cent electorate had exercised their franchisee.
The Daraunda assembly seat had fallen vacant consequent to the death of the sitting JD(U) MLA Jagmato Devi in June and the party had given ticket to her newly-wed daughter in-law to contest the bypoll.
The campaigning in Daraunda assembly bypoll was a high-pitched affair with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi and other top leaders campaigning for the JD-U candidate, while the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan and former MP Prabhnath Singh had dug their heels in the constituency to solicit support in favour of the RJD nominee.
Kumar thanked the people of the constituency for reposing faith in the party.
With this win the Bihar assembly's effective strength of 242 constitutes of JD(U)'s 117 MLAs, while its ally BJP 91, followed by RJD 22, LJP 1, INC 4 and 7 others.
