The by-election results which were declared by Tuesday gave the Indian National Congress (INC) something to cheer in view of other opposition parties questioning the credibility of the grand-old-party to counter the BJP juggernaut. The results were a mixed bag for the Congress, which won both the assembly by-polls in Rajasthan, sweeping Himachal Pradesh including the prestigious Mandi parliamentary seat and winning a seat in Maharashtra and won an assembly seat in Karnataka from the saffron party, but suffered losses in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. The Congress party won eight assembly seats and one parliamentary seat in total.
The success in Himachal Pradesh was big for the grand old party as the state will go for polls next year. After the results, Congress leader and in-charge of Himachal Pradesh Rajiv Shukla claimed that in the upcoming assembly elections the ruling BJP would be overthrown by the voters of the hill state. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal argued that the bypolls verdict is a “clear indication” that the BJP government at the centre is losing its momentum especially in “Hindi heartland” due to its “anti-people policies.”
In the by-polls the Congress sprung a surprise victory in Himachal Pradesh, as it retained Fatehpur and Arki assembly segments and posted a win in BJP-held Jubbal-Kotkhai. It also won the Lok Sabha seat of Mandi where Pratibha Singh, the wife of late chief minister Virbhadra Singh, defeated the BJP’s candidate and the Kargil war hero Brigadier (retired) Khushal Thakur.
Mandi is the home district of the sitting chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and hence a prestige battle for him. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, saffron party’s Ram Swaroop Sharma had emerged victorious by a margin of over four lakh votes. In Rajasthan, after the victory in Vallabhnagar and Dhariawad assembly seats the Congress claimed that the election result was a referendum on the performance of the state government and the party will return to power in the state after the 2023 polls.
Talking to The Daily Guardian, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member, Akhilesh Prasad Singh said, “The graph of Rahul Gandhi Ji had increased in the country even in the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat we lost narrowly. There is anger against the ruling dispensation on the issues of price rise, unemployment and covid mismanagement which was reflected in the verdict. What we need now is a broader alliance against the BJP led by the Congress which would defeat the saffron party in 2024.”
The loss in Bihar, where the grand-old-party lost deposits on both the seats is a setback as the party after 11 years contested separately.
In the final tally, BJP emerged victorious on seven assembly seats and one lok sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh while its allies JD (U) won two assembly seats of Bihar namely Kusheshwarsthan and Tarapur , United Peoples’ Party Liberal won two assembly seats in Assam, while the MNF won one seat in Mizoram and NPP won two seats in Meghalaya.The bypolls which were held on 29 assembly segments and three parliamentary seats gave both the BJP and the Congress something to cheer.