After blowing through Karnataka, the winds of opposition unity appear to have gathered momentum in the politically critical states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Pitted against a united opposition on most seats, the BJP on its own managed to pull victory only in one Lok Sabha seat – Palghar in Maharashtra and an assembly seat of Tharali in Uttarakhand. In Bihar's Jokihat assembly seat, Shah Nawaz Alam of the RJD defeated Murshid Alam of the JDU rather convincingly by a margin of 41,000 votes. Against UDF's D Vijayakumar (Congress) 46,347 votes P S Sreedharan Pillai of the BJP got 35,270 votes. In Meghalaya, Congress candidate Miani D Shira, daughter of former chief minister Mukul Sangma's daughter, retained Ampati seat by defeating NPP candidate Clement G Momin.

Source: dna May 31, 2018 23:41 UTC