By Our Staff Reporter

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 23. The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal won the Majitha Assembly seat with its candidate, Mr. Rajmohinder Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, defeating the Congress nominee, Mr. Sawinder Singh, by a margin of over 17,000 votes.

This is the third successive victory for the ruling SAD-BJP alliance in the byelections. Earlier, they wrested the Nawanshahr and Sunam seats from the Congress.

The Majitha victory comes as a shot in the arm for the Chief Minister, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, as the SAD had performed dismally in the last Lok Sabha polls.

SP retains Bharthana

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, FEB. 23. The BJP, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have shared the spoils in the byelections held on February 19.

While the BJP and the SP retained Sarsawa, in Saharanpur district, and Bharthana, in Etawah district, the BSP

wrested the Siwal Khas seat, in Meerut district, from the Rashtriya Lok Dal.

In Siwal Khas, Mr. Sunderlal Verma of the BSP defeated the RLD nominee, Mr. Charan Singh, by more than 13,000 votes.The BJP candidate finished third.

In Bharthana, the SP nominee, Mr. Pradip Kumar Yadav, defeated the BSP nominee, Mr. Vinod Kumar, by about 7,000 votes.

In a bid to dislodge the SP, the BJP had fielded Mr. Ajay Kumar Yadav, son of the Samajwadi Party MP, Mr. Balram Singh Yadav, but to no avail.

In Sarsawa, the BJP candidate, Mr. Raghav Pal Sharma, defeated the BSP nominee, Mr. Dharam Singh, by about 3,500 votes. The Lok Dal candidate finished third and the SP nominee fourth.

Babulal Marandi emerges victorious

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. The Chhatisgarh Chief Minister, Mr. Ajit Jogi, and his Jharkhand counterpart, Mr. Babulal Marandi, who needed to win to enter the State Assemblies, defeated their rivals by huge margins.

Mr. Jogi defeated his nearest BJP rival, Mr. Amar Singh Khushro, in Marwahi by a record margin of 50,758 votes, while Mr. Marandi defeated Ms. Nadira Begum of the CPI by 19,918 votes, wresting the Ramgarh seat.

In the Asthawan Assembly constituency in Bihar, the Samata Party emerged victorious, defeating the ruling RJD by 9,915 votes in a straight contest. The result dashed the hopes of the fledgling Lok Janshakti, headed by the Union Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, in its maiden electoral foray with its candidate forfeiting his security deposit.

The Congress failed to retain the Shahpur seat in Madhya Pradesh with its candidate Mr. Vilasrao Patil losing by 3,707 votes to the BJP nominee, Mr. Ramdas Shivhare. Two Independent candidates together polled 4,509 votes.

The ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh won with comfortable margins in the Gidallur and Badvel Assembly seats.

- PTI