The INDIA bloc, which posed a strong challenge to the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, is set to make a sweep in the assembly bypolls to 13 seats in seven states. The opposition front has won six seats, even as it leads in four others as the counting of votes is underway. The saffron party, meanwhile, has secured two seats while an Independent is leading in the remaining seat.
The Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), AAP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are the INDIA bloc parties that fielded candidates in the bypolls held on July 10 in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.
According to state officials and the EC trends, the BJP is in the lead in Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur, while an Independent is ahead in Bihar’s Rupauli.
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, is now ahead after the seventh round.
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.
Punjab
AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat was one of the early winner and bagged the Jalandhar West assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival and BJP nominee Sheetal Angural by a margin of more than 37,000 votes, officials said. While Bhagat polled 55,246 votes, Angural secured 17,921. Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, who was at the third spot, got 16,757 votes.
Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Surjit Kaur got 1,242 votes while BSP candidate Binder Kumar 734. The bypoll was necessitated after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Angural as the AAP legislator. He joined the BJP in March.
West Bengal
The TMC won Raiganj and Bagda assembly seats and secured an unassailable lead in two other constituencies in West Bengal, continuing its winning streak a month after the party’s resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Bypolls were held for Maniktala, Bagda, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Raiganj assembly seats.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Krishna Kalyani and Madhuparna Thakur won Raiganj and Bagda respectively, while Mukut Mani Adhikari and Supti Pandey were leading in Ranaghat Dakshin and Maniktala.
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 is leading by 31,441 votes in Maniktala in Kolkata over her nearest rival Kalyan Chaubey of the BJP. Mukut Mani Adhikari of the TMC is ahead of BJP nominee Manoj Kumar Biswas by 31,737 votes in Ranaghat Dakshin in North 24 Parganas.
The BJP 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.
Tamil Nadu
The ruling DMK continues to lead in the Vikravandi assembly constituency, where the counting is underway. When the fifth round of vote-count concluded, Anniyur Siva alias A Sivashanmugam of the DMK secured 31,151 votes, and he was leading by a margin of 19,668 votes over his nearest rival Pattali Makkal Katchi’s C Anbumani, who got 11,483 votes. Tamil nationalist party Nam Tamilar Katchi candidate K Abinaya was in the third place with 2,275 votes.
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.
Madhya Pradesh
Congress candidate Dheeran Shah Invati has established a lead of 5,634 votes over BJP’s Kamlesh Shah after the 10th round of counting in Amarwara assembly constituency, an official said. Invati polled 41,161 votes against Shah’s 35,527 after the 10th round of counting was completed, the official said.
Devraman Bhalavi of the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) polled 16,710 votes. The bypoll in Amarwara became necessary after three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah crossed over to the BJP on March 29 this year.
The BJP has fKielded him as its candidate. The bypoll to this ST-reserved seat in Chhindwara district is prestigious for both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.
The Congress (Shah) had won from Amarwara in the 2023 assembly elections, but the BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu won the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat this time by defeating Kamal Nath’s son, Nakul Nath. The GGP had won the Amarwara seat in 2003, while the Congress had represented it nine times. The BJP had emerged victorious in Amarwara in 1972, 1990 and 2008.
Bihar
Independent candidate Shankar Singh is now ahead in the bypoll to the Rupauli assembly seat in Purnea district, as per the Election Commission of India. 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)