INDIA Bloc Dominates Bypoll, Secures 10 Out Of 13 Assembly Seats, NDA Wins 2

The INDIA bloc, which posed a strong challenge to the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, won 10 out of 13 seats in the assembly bypolls in seven states. The saffron party, meanwhile, has secured two seats while an Independent bagged the remaining seat.

Bypolls were held on July 10 in four seats of West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

The TMC, an INDIA ally at a national level, won all four assembly constituencies in West Bengal, while the Congress won two out of three seats in Himachal Pradesh and both seats in Uttarakhand. The AAP, another national constituent of the opposition front, bagged the seat in Punjab. Southern ally DMK won the Tamil Nadu seat.

The BJP won two seats — one in Himachal Pradesh and put up a tough fight to win the lone seat in Madhya Pradesh. An independent candidate won the Bihar seat, defeating NDA partner JD(U).

West Bengal

The TMC won Raiganj, Bagda, Maniktala and Ranaghat assembly seats in West Bengal, continuing its winning streak a month after the party’s resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Krishna Kalyani and Madhuparna Thakur won Raiganj and Bagda respectively, while Mukut Mani Adhikari and Supti Pandey won the Ranaghat Dakshin and Maniktala seats respectively.

In Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, Kalyani won by a margin of 50,077 votes over his nearest BJP rival Manas Kumar Ghosh. Kalyani got 86,479 votes while Ghosh bagged 36,402.

TMC’s Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of Rajya Sabha MP and Matua leader Mamatabala Thakur, won by a margin of 33,455 votes over her rival Binay Kumar Biswas of the BJP in the Bagda assembly seat in North 24 Parganas district.

Madhuparna got 1,07,706 while Biswas secured 74,251. With this victory, the ruling party in West Bengal won Bagda after a gap of eight years.

TMC’s nominee Supti Pandey won the Maniktala seat in Kolkata defeating her nearest rival Kalyan Chaubey of the BJP. Mukut Mani Adhikari of the TMC emerged victorious in Ranaghat Dakshin in North 24 Parganas defeating BJP nominee Manoj Kumar Biswas.

The BJP had secured Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Raiganj segments in the 2021 assembly polls. Despite the BJP winning the other three seats in 2021, the MLAs later switched to the TMC. The three seats fell vacant after MLAs Kalyani, Adhikari, and Biswajit Das of Bagda resigned from their posts to contest Lok Sabha polls on a TMC ticket.

Kalyani, who lost to BJP’s Kartik Chandra Paul in the Lok Sabha polls, was re-nominated from Raiganj in the bypolls. Adhikari, who was defeated by BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar from the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, was in the fray again from the Ranaghat Dakshin assembly segment.

The Maniktala seat was won by the TMC in 2021 but became vacant after former state minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022. Reacting to the party’s performance in the bypolls, a state BJP leader said they would introspect.

“We will introspect the party’s performance. But the TMC did not allow free and fair elections and there were a lot of irregularities. The ruling party had unleashed a reign of terror,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

The TMC was quick to counter, dubbing the allegation as baseless. “The people have rejected the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls in Bengal and the same thing has happened in the bypolls. The allegation that by-polls were not free and fair are just excuses to hide their own failures,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.

The bypoll results are a shot in the arm for the TMC just a month after the party’s performance in Lok Sabha polls when it had bagged 29 parliamentary seats, up from 22 in 2019. The results are a fresh disappointment for the BJP after its dismal performance in the parliamentary elections when its tally came down to 12 from 18 in 2019.

Himachal Pradesh

The Congress won the Dehra assembly seat for the first time with candidate Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, defeating BJP candidate Hoshiyar Singh by a margin of 9,399 votes. She polled 32,737 votes in the bypoll against 23,338 votes polled by Singh. The Dehra assembly segment was carved out after a delimitation exercise in 2012.

Another Congress candidate, Hardeep Singh Bawa, defeated his nearest rival and BJP candidate KL Thakur in the bypoll to the Nalagarh assembly seat by 8,990 votes, officials said. Bawa is a five-time president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress’ Himachal Pradesh unit and polled 34,608 votes.

In the Hamirpur assembly seat, meanwhile, BJP’s Ashish Sharma, who was trailing in the first four rounds against Pushpinder Verma of the Congress, emerged victorious.

Nalagarh recorded the highest polling at 79.04 per cent, followed by Hamirpur (67.72 per cent) and Dehra (65.42 per cent). The overall voting percentage was 71 per cent, as per data of the state election department. The seats fell vacant after the three Independent legislators Singh (Dehra), Sharma (Hamirpur) and KL Thakur (Nalagarh), who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the party the next day.

Their resignations, however, were accepted by the assembly speaker on June 3, and the seats were declared vacant, necessitating the bypolls. The BJP fielded all the three former MLAs from their seats. The Congress fielded Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, repeated its candidate Verma from Hamirpur and gave ticket to Bawa from Nalagarh.

The bypolls will not make much of a difference in the 68-member House as the Congress has a majority with 38 MLAs. The BJP has 27 members.

Uttarakhand

The Congress won the Badrinath and Manglaur assembly seats in Uttarakhand. Candidate from Badrinath Lakhpat Singh Butola won by more than 5,200 votes against his nearest rival Rajendra Bhandari of the BJP. The seat fell vacant after Bhandari resigned from the Congress and the state assembly to join the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

On his victory from Badrinath assembly seat in by-elections, Congress candidate Lakhapat Singh Butola said, “I want to thank the people of Badrinath…The credit for this goes to all those who directly and indirectly supported me in this fight for justice.”

In Manglaur, Congress candidate Qazi Nizamuddin won by a slim margin of 449 votes against Kartar Singh Bhadana of the BJP in a closely fought contest. The saffron party has demanded a recount in some booths in Manglaur and submitted an application with the district magistrate.

The BSP’s Ubaidur Rahman, who was behind Nizamuddin at the second spot in the initial rounds of counting, came in third. The seat was with the party but fell vacant after Rahman’s father and sitting MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari died in October 2023.

Madhya Pradesh

The BJP’s Kamlesh Shah won the ST-reserved Amarwara assembly seat by a margin of more than 3,200 votes after trailing in a number of rounds. He defeated his nearest Congress rival Dheeran Shah Invati by a margin of 3,252 votes, a poll official said. Shah got 83,036 votes, while Invati polled 79,784 votes, the official added.

Devraman Bhalavi of the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) finished third by bagging 28,638 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after Shah, a three-time Congress MLA, crossed over to the BJP on March 29. The BJP then fielded him as its candidate from Amarwara in the bypoll.

This seat in Chhindwara district was prestigious for both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.

Tamil Nadu

The ruling DMK’s Anniyur Siva alias A Sivashanmugam won the Vikravandi assembly constituency, defeating his nearest rival Pattali Makkal Katchi’s C Anbumani.

The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of DMK legislator N Pugazhenthi in April this year. The main opposition AIADMK and DMDK boycotted the July 10 bypoll.

The DMK-led alliance had won all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry segment in the just concluded Parliamentary elections.

Punjab

The ruling party AAP retained the Jalandhar West assembly seat as its candidate Mohinder Bhagat defeated BJP’s Sheetal Angural by a margin of 37,325 votes. Bhagat polled 55,246 votes while Angural secured 17,921 votes, as per officials. Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, who was at the third spot, got 16,757 votes.

With this victory, the AAP will now have 91 MLAs in the 117-member Punjab assembly. On his victory, the 66-year-old Bhagat said voters gave their mandate in favour of the AAP because of the works undertaken by the Bhagwant Mann-led dispensation.

“From this result, it is clear that people are liking the works of the state government,” he said.

Bhagat maintained lead in counting of votes from the first round till the completion of 13 rounds. Surinder Kaur remained at the second spot till nine rounds of counting and, thereafter, Angural occupied the position. Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Surjit Kaur was at the fourth spot and BSP nominee Binder Kumar was at the fifth spot.

The bypoll was necessitated after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Angural as the AAP legislator. He joined the BJP in March.

The seat recorded a voter turnout of 54.98 per cent, a sharp drop from the 67 per cent it saw in the 2022 state elections. The victory was important for chief minister Bhagwant Mann as his AAP faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which it could win just three of the state’s 13 parliamentary constituencies.

Mann said the big margin of victory of the AAP shows that people are “very happy” with the state government’s work. “Congratulations to all for Aam Aadmi Party’s great victory in the Jalandhar West Vidhan Sabha constituency by-elections. The victory with a big lead shows that people across Punjab are very happy with the work of our government. We will make Jalandhar West the ‘best’ as promised during the bypoll. Congratulations to Mohinder Bhagat ji,” the CM said in a post on X.

Bihar

Independent candidate Shankar Singh won the Rupauli assembly seat in Purnea district. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for JD(U) several times but quit the party recently to contest the Lok Sabha election on an RJD ticket. Following her loss in the parliamentary election, she contested the bypoll as an RJD candidate.

(With PTI inputs)