The results for the bypolls held for 30 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats, spread across 14 states and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, are likely to come as a wake-up call for the ruling BJP. Of these 30 seats, the BJP was contesting on 21 seats spread across 11 states, out of which it lost on 14 seats.
The states where BJP had fielded its candidates include Andhra Pradesh (1), Assam (3), Haryana (1), Himachal Pradesh (3), Karnataka (1), Madhya Pradesh (3), Maharashtra (1), Mizoram (1), Rajasthan (2), Telangana (1) and West Bengal (4).
While the BJP and its NDA ally in Assam, United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), won all the 5 Assembly seats that went to polls in the state, it lost all the 3 seats in Himachal Pradesh.
In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress won all the 4 seats that witnessed the bypolls, including the two that were won by the BJP in May polls, defeating the BJP comfortably by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes in 3 of the 4 seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP was able to win 2 of the 3 seats that went to polls, with one seat going to the Congress. The Raigaon seat where the Congress won, was last won by a Congress candidate 31 years ago.
However, the BJP was able to retain the Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha seat where the election was necessitated due to the demise of the sitting MP, Nand Kumar Chauhan. However, the Congress won a narrow fight in the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, Himachal Pradesh, and retained the seat. The Shiv Sena candidate won on the Dadra and Nagar lok Sabha seat, defeating her nearest rival from the BJP.
In Bihar, the JDU, a part of the NDA, was able to retain both the Assembly seats of Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, defeating a resurgent RJD. This was the first election where the party’s patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav had campaigned after his release from the prison. The Congress candidate in Tarapur got less than 2.5 percent vote, while its candidate in Kusheshwar Asthan got less than 4.5 vote. Similarly, the candidates of LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan failed to make any impact on the ground.
The two seats of Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar saw the victory of both the Congress candidates. Dhariawad is considered a BJP bastion.
In Badvel, Karnataka, YSR Congress candidate defeated her nearest competitor of BJP. The YSR Congress got more than 75% of the total votes with the BJP getting 15% of the total votes polled.
In the Ellenabad, Haryana Assembly bypolls, Abhay Singh Chautala of Indian National Lok Dal defeated the BJP candidate Gobind Kanda.
In Karnataka, the ruling BJP candidates lost from Hangal, while the party won from the Sindgi Assembly seats. For the lone Assembly seat of Deglur, Maharashtra, the Congress defeated the BJP.
The BJP won on the Huzurabad, Telangana, seat defeating the nearest competitor from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Of the three seats that saw bypolls in Meghalaya, National People›s Party (NPP), which is a part of the NDA, won 2, while United Democratic Party (UDP) won on the remaining one seat.
In Tuirial, Mizoram, the Mizo National Front candidate defeated both the BJP and the Congress candidates. Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party won on the Shamator Chessore, Nagaland, unopposed as its candidate was the only candidate in the elections.
