Bypoll battle: TMC sweeps Bengal, BJP+ Assam, Congress Himachal

A clean sweep of five seats in Assam and a string of setbacks in Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan, where it cumulatively failed to retain six constituencies, on Tuesday marked a bittersweet judgment day for BJP in byelections to 30 assembly and three Lok Sabha vacancies. While BJP individually won eight seats overall in this round of bypolls, Congress did a shade better by clinching nine, including two surprise victories in Himachal at its rival's expense.