Bypolls: It’s 4-3 for INDIA, is tide turning?

Lucknow, Agencies: Is the poll equation tilting in favour of the national opposition after the recent formation of the INDIA alliance?

That was the question on most people’s minds with parties which are part of INDIA winning four of the seven Assembly seats in the recent bypolls when the results were announced on Friday.

While the saffron party bagged three seats, one seat each went to the Samajwadi Party (SP)), Congress, JMM and TMC, all INDIA constituents.

The BJP retained the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand and won the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura but lost the Dhupguri seat in West Bengal to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh won the Ghosi assembly bypoll defeating Dara Singh Chauhan of BJP by 42,759 votes while in Jharkhand, JMM retained the Dumri assembly seat.

The BJP's Parwati Dass defeated Congress' Basant Kumar by more than 2,400 votes in Bageshwar in Uttarakhand.

The opposition Congress-UDF in Kerala retained the Puthuppally seat with its candidate Chandy Oommen, son of late Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy, trounced ruling LDF candidate Jaick C Thomas.

The bypolls were the first electoral test for the INDIA alliance of 28 parties formed recently to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls next year.