The results to the seven bypolls held for seven seats across six states – the first to be held since the formation of the Opposition’s INDIA alliance – were a mixed bag for the front and for the BJP-led NDA. If the BJP won three bypolls – two of them its sitting seats – INDIA allies won four.
However, what might gladden the INDIA alliance’s heart is that in both the seats where it was in the race as a group – Dumri in Jharkhand and Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh – its candidates won.
In the two other seats won by INDIA parties, its members were in different corners – the Congress retained Puthuppally in Kerala against the CPI(M), while the Trinamool Congress wrested Dhupguri from the BJP in Bengal, after taking on both the CPI(M) and Congress.
Of all the results, the Ghosi one will be the sweetest for INDIA, coming in BJP-dominated Uttar Pradesh. The BJP, moreover, had fielded an influential OBC leader, Dara Singh Chauhan, who won in the 2022 Assembly elections on the SP ticket.
The SP, backed by INDIA partners RLD, Congress and the Left, did not just win Ghosi, it massively increased its vote share from 2022 – to over 58% from 42% – partly helped by the BSP’s absence in the bypoll.
The BJP, more or less, retained its vote bank but the loss will sting as the party had rounded up a galaxy of leaders cutting across castes to campaign, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Chauhan’s frequent party-hopping cost the party dear – with its aggressive campaigning for him not helping its cause with angry voters.
In Dumri, the other seat where INDIA fielded a joint candidate, the JMM’s Bebi Devi registered a comprehensive win over the NDA nominee. The JMM had fielded Bebi Devi to fill the seat held for a long time by her late husband Jagarnath Mahato, a popular leader who had participated in the agitation for the Jharkhand state. His death necessitated the bypoll.
However, in the Bageshwar Assembly seat in Uttarakhand, INDIA had a rough run, with the BJP retaining its turf. The Congress lost by 2,400-plus votes, which means the SP’s 637 votes might not have made a difference. However, the fact that the SP chose to be in a race that it had no chance of winning did cause some heartburn for its INDIA partner.
The BJP will be proud of its emphatic wins in the two Tripura bypolls, for Dhanpur and Boxanagar seats. While Dhanpur had a sitting BJP MLA, the party wrested Boxanagar from the CPI(M) by a huge margin of 30,200-plus votes, with the Left candidate getting around 3,900 votes. The two wins take the BJP tally to a more comfortable 33 in the 60-member House.
The CPI(M)-Congress alliance will be worried about the fact that its votes in the two seats fell from the Assembly elections earlier this year.
In Bengal, it was the BJP’s turn to be on the receiving end. The party had been counting on retaining Dhupguri to check its slide in the state. However, the ruling Trinamool Congress, buffeted by problems of its own, spared no effort and wrested the seat by over 4,000 votes.
Apart from being a prestige win for the party in its battle against the BJP, it is further indication of the TMC making its way back into North Bengal. All three major parties in the race, including the CPI(M) (which was backed by the Congress), fielded new faces for the race.
Commenting on the Dhupguri win, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said: “The BJP has lost four bypolls out of the seven held on September 5. This is a big win for INDIA.”
But the most spectacular win of the bypolls came from more expected quarters. The Congress didn’t just retain Puthuppally in Kerala, it did so by a margin that surpassed its late veteran Oommen Chandy’s highest ever in the 53 years that he held the seat. The former CM’s son Chandy Oommen had been fielded by the party.
It was a big blow to CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who had made the bypoll a referendum on his government and led the campaign from the front. The aggressive CPI(M) campaign, and the sharp attacks on the Chandy family, appear to have not gone down well with the voters, who continue to hold affection for the late Congress leader. The CPI(M) candidate got almost half of Chandy Oommen’s votes.
BJP leaders hailed the party’s victory in Tripura and Uttarakhand, with Sambit Patra saying the results had shattered the arrogance of the “ghamandiya” INDIA alliance.
BJP chief J P Nadda posted on X on the Bageshwar win, calling it “people’s seal on the development works of the party’s double engine government”.
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The bypolls were the first electoral test of the INDIA grouping of 28 parties. Buoyed by the Ghosi win, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said: “It is a victory for positive politics and a defeat for negative communal politics… It is Bharat starting towards INDIA’s victory.”
The RLD and Congress too called the results a win for INDIA and a pointer to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The CPI(M) blamed large-scale rigging in Tripura for its setbacks in bypolls in the state, and demanded a re-election.
The news of the day is not the arrival of G20 leaders for the Leaders’ Summit. The top news is the overall result of the seven by-elections that were announced today
Clearly, the winner is INDIA. INDIA beat the BJP 4:3
The BJP won in two seats in Tripura and the lone seat in…
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 8, 2023
With inputs by Lalmani Verma (Lucknow), Shaju Philip (Thiruvananthapuram), Debraj Deb (Agartala), Atri Mitra (Kolkata), Avaneesh Mishra (Dehradun), Abhishek Angad (Ranchi)
