The Bharatiya Janata Party and alliance partner Janata Dal (United) on Thursday lost four out of the five Assembly seats in the Bihar bye-elections held on Monday. The only seat that the JD(U) won was the Nathnagar constituency where its candidate Lakshmikant Mandal secured 5,131 votes against Rabiya Khatun of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Voting took place in the Assembly constituencies of Kishanganj, Nathnagar, Belhar, Simri Bakhtiyarpur and Daraunda on Monday as the sitting MLAs became moved to the Lok Sabha in May.

The ruling Janata Dal (United) fielded candidates on four of these seats, while the BJP contested the Kishanganj seat. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, or AIMIM, won a seat for the first time in the Bihar Assembly after its candidate in Kishanganj, Qamrul Hoda, defeated Sweety Singh of the BJP by 10,204 votes.

Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Zafar Alam defeated JD(U) candidate Arun Kumar by a margin of 15,505 votes in Simri Bakhtiyarpur constituency.

In Belhar, Ramdeo Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal defeated Janata Dal (United) candidate Laldhari Yadav by 19,231 votes, and in Daraundha constituency, independent candidate Karnjeet Singh defeated Janata Dal (United) candidate Ajay Kumar Singh by a margin of 27,279 votes.

Also read: Bye-election battle: What you need to know about 51 seats across 17 states that went to polls

Now, follow and debate the day’s most significant stories on Scroll Exchange.