The result of the bypolls for the 51 Assembly seats in 11 States, including politically important Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, came as wake-up call for the BJP-led NDA on Monday. The BJP conceded ground to the Opposition in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, while its ally Janata Dal(U) suffered a bloody nose in Bihar.
The BJP lost the prestigious Satara Lok Sabha bypoll in Maharashtra. However, the NDA ally LJP retained the Samastipur (SC) Lok Sabha constituency.
In Gujarat, influential OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who recently joined the saffron party, lost to the Congress candidate. The Congress and the BJP shared three seats each in the stronghold of the Prime Minister and the BJP president.
The BJP also presented a dismal show in Bihar bypolls, where four of the five Assembly seats went to the Opposition, but the saffron outfit did comparatively better in Uttar Pradesh, where it managed to retain seven out of 11 seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, Congress wrested its traditional Jhabua Assembly seat from the BJP. In Rajasthan also, the Congress increased its tally in the State legislature by one after winning the Assembly bypolls to Mandawa, while MP Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party retained the Khinwsar seat.
The BJP and its allies had held nearly 30 of the 51 Assembly seats, while the Congress had won 12 and the rest were with regional parties. Among the States ruled by the BJP and its allies, elections were held for 11 seats in UP, followed by six in Gujarat, five in Bihar, four in Assam and two each in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
SP candidate from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, Tazeen Fatima, who is a Rajya Sabha member and also wife of controversial SP leader and MP from the constituency Azam Khan, has scored victory over the BJP candidate.
The BJP has won seven Assembly seats in UP with one going to party of Apana Dal (Sone Lal) and three seats cornered by the SP. The BSP which contested separately from the SP (unlike 2019 Lok Sabha alliance), scored a duck.
The NDA in Bihar presented very poor show in by-elections to five Assembly segments of the State, seen by some as the “semi-final” ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls scheduled next year. While the RJD won two seats, one each seat went to All India Majlis-e-Itehadil Muslimmeen of Asaduddin Owaisi, the JD(U), and an Independent. But, in Samastipur Lok Sabha seat, NDA constituent LJP comfortably retained seat.
Samastipur seat fell vacant upon the death of party’s sitting MP Ram Chandra Paswan (brother of Union Minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan).
BJP candidate Udaynraje Bhosale, however, lost the second Lok Sabha bypoll from Satara in Maharashtra to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate.
The by-election in Satara Lok Sabha was necessitated after sitting MP Bhosale, a scion of Chhatrapati Shivaji, quit the NCP and defected to the BJP. The NCP had fielded Shriniwas Patil, a long-time friend of party patriarch Sharad Pawar and a popular orator in the region.
In Gujarat, the home State of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, BJP and Congress shared three seats each in the Assembly bypolls. OBC leader and BJP candidate Alpesh Thakor lost the by-election to Radhanpur Assembly seat in Gujarat. Congress’ Raghubhai Desai defeated Thakor by over 3,500 votes.
Thakor, who emerged as an OBC leader during the Patel quota agitation and won the Radhanpur seat in the 2017 polls on Congress’ ticket, later quit after differences with the State party leadership.
Ruling BJP performed better than its rivals in Assam where it won three Assembly seats of four with one going to AIUDF. In Himachal Pradesh also, BJP retained both the Assembly seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, Congress wrested its traditional Jhabua Assembly seat from the BJP in the bypoll for the constituency. Congress candidate and former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria won by margin of over 27,804 votes, defeating BJP’s Bhanu Bhuria.
The Congress had lost the seat to BJP in last year’s Assembly polls when BJP’s GS Damor defeated Kantilal Bhuria’s son Vikrant Bhuria by 10,437 votes.
In Punjab, the ruling Congress emerged victorious in the bypolls to the Phagwara and Jalalabad Assembly segments on Monday while Siromani Akali Dal won Dakha seat by defeating Congress candidate. (The Dakha seat fell vacant following the resignation of former AAP leader and noted Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka from the State Assembly.)
The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF registered impressive wins at Vattiyoorkavu and Konni, the two strongholds of the Congress headed UDF, while the Opposition front retained the Ernakulam seat of the five Assembly seats in Kerala. Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Prasanth, who contested at Vattiyoorkavu constituency won with a margin of 14,465 votes against his nearest rival, Congress party’s K Mohankumar, while KU Jinesh Kumar won from Konni by a margin of 9,953 votes.
TRS won Huzurnagar bypoll in Telangana against the Opposition Congress. The AIADMK won both Tamil Nadu seats against DMK in Tamil Nadu.
Ruling United Democratic Party candidate Balajied Kupar Synrem won the bypoll to Shella Assembly constituency in Meghalaya by over 6000 votes.