Putul Kumari Singh. Telegraph picture

Patna, Nov. 24: Riding high on the sympathy wave generated in the wake of her husband Digvijay Singh’s premature death and also the support of the resurgent JD (U)-BJP alliance, Putul Kumari Singh won the Banka Lok Sabha bypoll by a comfortable margin.

She defeated her RJD rival Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav by over 69,000 votes.

The Banka Lok Sabha seat located in south-eastern Bihar fell vacant after its MP, Digvijay Singh, died following a brain haemorrhage at a London hospital in June this year.

Digvijay had won this seat as an Independent candidate in 2009, defying the strong under current in favour of the JD (U)-BJP combine.

Digvijay was a JD (U) MP in the Rajya Sabha. The party denied him a ticket in the last general elections following which he contested the Banka seat independently and won it.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar reached out to the family after the demise of Digvijay, lovingly referred to as Dada, and declared his party’s support to Putul in the bypolls.

The BJP too supported her while the Congress did not field a candidate against her.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad too initially announced his party’s support to Putul’s candidature but with a condition: she should contest as an RJD nominee.

When she did not, the RJD fielded Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav on the seat against her.

The party chose Jaiprakash because of the presence of over three lakh Yadavs in Banka Lok Sabha constituency.

But Lalu’s calculation, like in case of the Assembly polls, has failed in the Banka bypoll too with Putul Kumari defeating the RJD candidate with a comfortable margin.

Nitish Kumar did not only extend his party’s support to her but went to campaign for her in Banka. Addressing a rally in the constituency, Nitish said: “Digvijay Singh was the founder member of the Samata Party, the earlier incarnation of the JD (U). We never treated him as an entity beyond our party.”