INDIA sweeps bypolls; big setback for Modi's BJP

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Results of thirteen assembly bypolls across seven states Saturday brought cheer to the Opposition camp, with INDIA bloc bagging 10 seats, including two each by the Congress in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where the party was routed in the Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP registered wins in only two seats, having contested as many as 11.

In West Bengal, the BJP suffered yet another jolt, as the party lost all four seats where voting was held on 10 July, including three it had won in the 2021 assembly polls, to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

A win in Madhya Pradesh’s Amarwara, which comes under the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency dominated by Congress’s Kamal Nath for decades until his son Nakul Nath lost to the BJP in this general election, came as the only salve for the BJP in an otherwise disappointing day for the party.

While local factors determined the outcome of the bypolls, the impressive performance of the INDIA bloc parties in various parts of the country will further diminish the aura of political invincibility that the BJP had come to enjoy for the better part of the past decade under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It will also place the INDIA bloc at an advantageous position in the game of perception ahead of the next round of state assembly elections to be held later this year in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

The BJP had contested all assembly bypolls but Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu and Bihar’s Rupauli, won by the DMK and an independent candidate respectively.

While the party had sitting MLAs in only three of the seats that saw bypolls, all three candidates fielded by the party in Himachal Pradesh had won as independents in the 2022 assembly elections.

For Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the Congress’s performance in the bypolls, particularly the victory of wife Kamlesh Thakur from the Dehra assembly seat that the party never won in the past, will come as a boost, after the drubbing in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha polls earlier this year.

In neighbouring Punjab, the AAP’s victory in Jalandhar West assembly seat will lift the party’s morale at a time it is facing a major crisis with its top leaders including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in jail.

After Ayodhya, saffron party now loses Badrinath

Congress candidate Lakhapat Singh Butola defeated BJP candidate Rajendra Singh Bhandari by a margin of 5,224 votes in Badrinath.

The Congress victory in Badrinath is also significant as it is home to one of the Char Dham shrines, considered sacred by devout Hindus.

It will rankle the BJP as the Opposition will use every opportunity to remind the ruling party that it is the second seat, after Faizabad Lok Sabha seat under which Ayodhya falls, that is home to a Hindu pilgrimage site that the party failed to win.

Turncoats on saffron party tickets lose big time

The BJP’s losses in the 11 Assembly seats were characterized by four of the six defectors it had fielded suffering defeat. Moreover, three former MLAs from the BJP who had resigned and contested on Trinamool Congress (TMC) tickets won their respective seats.

In Uttarakhand, BJP suffered defeat in Badrinath where former Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari joined the BJP but lost to Congress candidate Lakhpat Singh Butola. Former AAP MLA from Jalandhar West Sheetal Anugral quit and contested on a BJP ticket. However, AAP candidate Mohan Bhagat retained the seat for his party.

In Himachal Pradesh, Independent MLA from Dehra Hoshyar Singh resigned and contested from the BJP but lost to Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur.

Congressman Hardeep Singh Bawa wrested Nalagarh from BJP’s Krishan Lal Thakur after the latter quit as an independent MLA.

However, Ashish Sharma, who had been Hamirpur independent MLA, retained his seat contesting on a BJP ticket against Congress Pushpinder Verma. Lastly, the saffron party pulled off a victory in Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh’s tribal belt.

Former Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah contested and won on a BJP ticket against Grand Old Party man Dhiran Shah Invati.