New Delhi, Sep 14 - Reeling under crises after its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had a reason to celebrate when it won seven of the 12 bye-elections to various state assemblies Monday.

The Congress party received a setback, getting only four seats. The bye-elections were necessitated in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim either because of the death of the legislators or sitting members getting elected to parliament. The counting of votes for 12 seats took place Monday.

The BJP won five seats in Gujarat and one each in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. The the Congress won in two constituencies in Gujarat and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The by-polls in Gujarat were being considered a popularity test for Chief Minister Narendra Modi, especially after the worse-than-expected performance of the BJP in the April-May parliamentary elections.

Besides the parliamentary polls debacle, the BJP suffered a defeat last month in the crucial municipal corporation election in its stronghold Junagadh.

Chief minister Narendra Modi did not campaign for the assembly bye-elections after the party got only 15 of the 26 seats from Gujarat in the Lok Sabha elections while Modi had claimed that he would ensure the BJP got not less than 24.

The latest result is a setback for the Congress since it had six legislators from the seven that went to polls in Gujarat.

The party snatched from the BJP the Kodinar seat in the Saurashtra region while it retained the Dhoraji seat in the same region.