Lucknow, Nov 10 (TIWN) The Congress in Uttar Pradesh will not contest the upcoming by-elections in Mainpuri and Khatauli but will focus on forthcoming elections to urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress drew a blank in the seven assembly constituencies -- Adampur, Gola Gokarannath, Dhamnagar, Andheri (East), Mokama, Gopalganj and Munugode -- in six states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha and Telangana that went to polls on November 3. The results were declared on Sunday.

While the TRS managed to get a foothold by winning the high-stakes bypoll to Munugode Assembly constituency, it had to overcome a spirited challenge from the BJP.

The bypoll assumed immense political significance as it was seen as a virtual semi-final ahead of next year's Legislative Assembly polls in Telangana.

The TRS, recently renamed as Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), took it as a prestige issue as a loss would have dented its plans to go national.

In Maharashtra, Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), won the by-election to Andheri (East) in Mumbai, the seat earlier represented by her deceased husband, after major parties including the BJP did not field candidates. The second-highest number of votes (14.79 per cent) went to the None Of The Above (NOTA) option in the constituency.

The BJP said the result of the November 3 by-election was a stamp of approval by people on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies as it retained Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, Dhamnagar in Odisha and Gopalganj in Bihar where it had fielded the kin of its party MLAs whose death necessitated the polls.

In Haryana, BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in Haryana's Adampur by a margin of around 16,000 votes, maintaining the family's winning streak.