NEW DELHI: In a significant blow to the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala, UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath of Congress defeated LDF's M Swaraj of CPI(M) by a large margin of 11,077 votes in the Nilambur assembly by-election. As per the Election Commission website, Shoukath had secured 77737 votes, a lead of 11077 votes from M Swaraj of the CPM after 19 rounds of counting.

The bypoll for the Nilambur seat was necessitated after the resignation of Left Democratic Front independent legislator PV Anvar, who later joined the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) after his acrimonious break-up with the ruling alliance.

In its official statement, the Kerala Congress said, "Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has won the Nilambur assembly constituency, a sitting seat of the ruling CPM combine, by a huge margin of over 11,000 votes. Big congrats to Aryadan Shoukath and the entire Congress-UDF team that worked relentlessly for this shining victory. Successive bypoll wins and a clean sweep in the parliament elections by the Congress and UDF have proved beyond doubt that the anti-incumbency sentiment against the Pinarayi Vijayan government is gaining momentum by the day. Now the anger of the people has reached its peak. The government cannot escape the heat or continue to live in denial, hiding behind the multi-crore PR machinery."

In Gujarat's Visavadar Assembly by-election, AAP's Gopal Italia leads with 17,554 votes over BJP's Kirit Patel after 21 rounds. The Visavadar seat fell vacant after Bhayani Bhupendrabhai Gandubhai resigned.

In a post on X, AAP Gujarat expressed their gratitude, stating, "Many thanks to the people of Visavadar, Bhensan and Junagadh villages for choosing the politics of work of Aam Aadmi Party"