New Delhi: Congress on September 29 suffered a major reverse when it lost bye-elections for two crucial Lok Sabha seats of Ernakulam in Kerala and Sholapur in Maharashtra, vacated by Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, where it lost by a huge margin.

The results of the by-polls for six Assembly constituencies spread across five states were mixed.

Thanks to bitter infighting resulting in veteran leader K Karunakaran's open rebellion against party candidate M O John, the Congress was humbled in Ernakulam, where it lost to Communist Party of India (CPM)-backed independent Sebastian Paul by a margin of 22,134 votes.

In what is seen as a major blow to Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony, the Congress candidate, handpicked by him, lost the pocket borough of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), which it had won by over a lakh votes in the Lok Sabha polls in 1999.

The poll result is seen as a victory for disgruntled Karunakaran, whose claims for the seat were ignored by the Congress high command, prompting him to ask his supporters to work for the victory of the Left- backed candidate.

In Solapur, which was vacated by Sushil Kumar Shinde after taking over as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Congress' Anandrao Devkate, who is also the Dairy Development Minister in the DF government, lost by a margin of 1,22,817 votes to BJP's Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil.

PTI