NEW DELHI: I.N.D.I Alliance gave an excellent performance in the bypolls held on 13 seats in seven states, after their successful stint in the Lok Sabha elections.
After achieving an impactful result in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, the Congress-led I.N.D.I Alliance continued their strong performance in the by-elections held by the Election Commission of India for 13 Assembly seats across seven states. The results, announced on Saturday, July 13, 2024, revealed that the I.N.D.I.A. bloc won the majority of the seats, securing 10 out of 13. In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to win only 2 seats.
The counting of votes for 13 Legislative Assembly seats across seven states began on Saturday morning. Polling took place on July 10 for one seat each in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh, two seats in Uttarakhand, three seats in Himachal Pradesh, and four seats in West Bengal. The constituencies included Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagdah, and Maniktala in West Bengal; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.
The grand old party secured 4 seats, while Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 4 seats as well. Both, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won one seat each. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win two seats, and one seat went to an Independent candidate.
In Punjab, AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West seat, defeating his closest competitor, BJP nominee Sheetal Angural. This seat became vacant after Angural resigned from AAP and joined BJP in March.
In Himachal Pradesh, Congress candidates Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and Hardeep Singh Bawa, won the elections from Dehra and Nalagarh, respectively. BJP’s Ashish Sharma secured a win in Hamirpur. The bypolls in Himachal Pradesh were necessitated by the resignations of MLAs Hoshyar Singh from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur, and KL Thakur from Nalagarh. They had voted in favour of BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27 and later joined the party after resigning from the State Assembly on March 22. The Congress also won both Assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand, Badrinath and Manglaur, in the by-elections.
BJP candidate Kamlesh Pratap Saha won the Amarwara constituency in Madhya Pradesh. The Amarwara (ST) Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara became vacant after three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah switched to BJP in March. This result was significant for both, BJP and Congress, as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, until the recently concluded Lok Sabha election.
In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) won all four Assembly seats, including Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Maniktala, and Bagdah. The bypolls in the state were necessitated because Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah, and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin vacated their seats to contest in the Lok Sabha elections.
Independent candidate Shankar Singh won against his closest rival, Janata Dal (United) candidate Kaladhar Mandal, in Rupauli constituency of Bihar. The seat was previously held by Bima Bharti, who resigned from Janata Dal (United) and joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in March to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Purnia parliamentary seat. However, she was defeated by independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan.
In Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Anniyur Siva won the Vikravandi Assembly constituency.
After winning four seats in the by-election, Congress leader Pawan Khera claimed on Saturday that BJP was entering a phase of electoral decline similar to what Congress experienced after 2014. “This trend, which began with the Lok Sabha elections, is continuing. BJP will keep losing all the upcoming elections,” Khera stated. He added, “This trend started for us in 2014 when we lost many elections, and now BJP will go through the same phase.”
Similarly, taking a dig at BJP, AAP leader Sandeep Pathak said, “BJP can keep Arvind Kejriwal in jail, but they don’t understand that his roots run deep. He cannot be easily defeated. BJP’s main focus is on poaching leaders from other parties and sending them to jail. They are not focused on their work.”
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in an interaction with reporters, “The people of Himachal gave us 40 seats in 2022. They have now given a strong response to the kind of political poaching that took place in the state. This also gives a message that the people are aware and vigilant, and such tactics will not work.” He added, “I put everything into the Dehra constituency. I want to congratulate Kamlesh Thakur for winning the seat. Fielding my wife in Dehra was aimed at strengthening Congress’s presence in Kangra and increasing our MLAs in the valley from 9 to 10. All three seats are BJP strongholds, and we have won two of them. This is a significant achievement.”