New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies on Tuesday won 14 seats, while the Congress won eight in the recently held bypolls to 29 assembly seats. The results of this by-election were in favor of the ruling parties in most of the states except Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. In a major setback to the ruling BJP in Himachal Pradesh, the opposition Congress won all three assembly seats, Fatehpur, Arki and Jubal-Kotkhai and the prestigious Mandi Lok Sabha seat.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress got strong support from voters in the by-elections held in the state. It won all the four assembly seats in the state, including the two it snatched from the BJP. Trinamool Congress got 75.02 percent votes. The results of the by-elections held in 13 states of the country were mixed for the BJP as well as the Congress. The Congress gained in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka and snatched seats from the BJP, but suffered losses in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya.
As per the final result, the BJP won seven assembly seats, while its ally JD(U) won two in Bihar, United People’s Party Liberal – two in Assam, MNF-one in Mizoram and NPP – two. Won seats in Meghalaya. NPP ally UDP also got one seat. Congress won eight seats, TMC four, YSRC one and INLD one.
Congress, Shiv Sena and BJP won one seat each in Lok Sabha. Sympathy seemed to work for political parties. Congress candidate Pratibha Singh and wife of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. Singh died in July last. On the other hand, Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar, wife of former Independent MP Mohan Delkar, won the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat by-elections. Mohan Delkar also passed away.
Similarly, kin of the late MLAs fielded by Congress in Maharashtra, JD(U) in Bihar and YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh also won. The ruling BJP retained the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh and snatched Jobat (reserved) and Prithvipur assembly seats from the Congress, but lost the Raigaon (reserved) seat to the opposition party.
The BJP also strengthened its position in Assam as its alliance won all five assembly seats. Out of this, BJP got three seats while its ally UPPL won two seats. It secured one seat in Telangana. BJP ally JD(U) retained two seats in Bihar. Former national footballer E. Lyngdoh won from Mawphlang constituency of Meghalaya.
In Rajasthan, where the Congress retained one seat and snatched one seat from the BJP, the BJP candidates not only lost the bypolls, but also finished third and fourth in Dhariyawad and Vallabhnagar constituencies, respectively. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala was re-elected in Haryana’s Ellenabad Assembly by-election. He left the membership of the assembly in protest against the new agricultural laws of the Centre. In Karnataka, the BJP snatched the Sindgi assembly seat from the JD(S) but lost the Hangal seat to the Congress. This is being seen as a setback for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as the Hangal seat is next to his Shiggaon assembly constituency in Haveri district and he had campaigned a lot there.
This was also the first major election challenge for Bommai after taking over as chief minister. However, in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP suffered the biggest setback as the party lost Mandi seat to the Congress, which is the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The Congress also snatched one assembly seat and retained two others. Assembly elections in the state are to be held in December next year. The Congress hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing the bypoll results and asked him to shed arrogance, repeal three agriculture laws and stop “looting” on petrol and diesel. Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Every victory of Congress is a victory of our party workers. Keep fighting against hate. do not fear!”
BJP President JP Nadda congratulated the party workers and expressed “gratitude to the people for the victory of BJP and NDA in the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-elections”. “The NDA governments under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are continuously committed to the holistic development of the people following the basic mantra of Antyodaya,” he said.
Of these 29 seats, five are in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana. There was a seat. The BJP had earlier won about half a dozen of these constituencies, with the Congress holding nine seats, while the rest were held by regional parties. The voting under this by-election was held on October 30 last. These by-elections were being seen as an opportunity to gauge the political mood in the country ahead of the assembly elections in five states, including the politically important Uttar Pradesh.
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