10/13: INDIA bloc sweeps bypoll in 7 states, turncoats lose big on BJP ticket

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 13

The opposition INDIA bloc on Saturday swept the Assembly byelections held across seven states, winning 10 of the 13 seats and taking the first round of the poll cycle held after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance returned to power for the third straight time in the 2024 General Election.

The byelections were held for four seats in West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Bihar, MP, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. These were necessitated due to defections in 10 seats and the demise of sitting lawmakers in three.

The BJP managed to win only two of the 11 seats it contested. The opposition contrastingly registered gains, with the Congress winning four of the six seats it contested and making strong comebacks in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where it was routed by the BJP in the recent General Election.

Trinamool, Cong get 4 each, BJP 2

West Bengal (4): TMC wins all, wrests Raiganj; Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda from BJP

and retains Maniktala

Himachal (3): Cong wins Dehra and Nalagarh, BJP Hamirpur

Uttarakhand (2): Cong wins both: wrests Manglaur from BSP; retains Badrinath where its sitting MLA defected to BJP

Punjab (1): AAP retains Jalandhar West; sitting MLA Sheetal Angural defected to BJP and fought on saffron party ticket

Bihar (1): Ind wins Rupauli after JD(U)’s Bima Bharti joined RJD

MP (1) BJP wrests Amarwara from Cong after fielding sitting MLA; seat in ex-CM Kamal Nath’s bastion Chhindwara

TN (1) DMK retains Vikravandi after death of sitting MLA

In Punjab, AAP stormed back winning Jalandhar West after recently losing the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat to the Congress. West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress maintained regional dominance by winning all four bypolls it fought. On three seats in Bengal — Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda — sitting BJP legislators who had crossed over to the TMC won.

In Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK retained Vikravandi where its sitting MLA had passed away. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party won Jalandhar West after its MLA Sheetal Angural defected to the BJP and contested on the saffron party’s symbol.

The BJP suffered big at the hands of defectors. Of the six turncoats it fielded, four lost—two in Himachal Pradesh (Dehra and Nalagarh), one in Uttarakhand (Badrinath) and one in Punjab (Jalandhar West). In contrast, all sitting BJP MLAs who switched sides to the Trinamool Congress won.

Saturday’s message for the BJP was clear and had resonance from the Lok Sabha election results—the defector gamble is not paying. In the 2024 LS poll, over 60 per cent of the nearly 106 defectors the BJP fielded had lost. In the Saturday byelections too, 66 per cent of the defectors who fought on the BJP ticket were defeated.

After losing Faizabad parliamentary segment that houses Ayodhya, the seat of Ram Temple, the BJP today lost Badrinath Assembly bypoll to the Congress.

The saffron party’s candidate in Badrinath was Rajendra Bhandari, the sitting Congress legislator who had jumped ship to the saffron side. Bhandari lost to debutant Lakhpat Singh Butola of the Congress. Badrinath, which is one of the four Char Dhams, is now the only Assembly seat the Congress holds among all others in the Garhwal Lok Sabha segment.

The Congress was quick to frame the bypoll results as a sign of “changing political climate in India”. The party also hit back at the BJP just a day after the government declared Emergency anniversary June 25 as Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas.

“The results of the byelections in seven states have made it clear that the web of fear and confusion woven by the BJP has been broken. Every class, including farmers, youth, labourers, businessmen and employed people, wants to completely destroy dictatorship and establish the rule of justice. The public is now completely standing with INDIA bloc for the betterment of their lives and protection of the Constitution. Hail India, hail Constitution,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in Himachal, all the machinations of the BJP had failed miserably. “The Congress has won two of the Assembly seats held by Independents who had been lured away as part of ‘Operation Lotus’. This is reflective of the significant recovery of the Congress and public disgust with the BJP… Both Assembly elections in Uttarakhand have also been won by the Congress. Manglaur was wrested from the BSP and in the face of the BJP’s dirty tactics. In Badrinath, the sitting MLA was a Congressman who switched to the BJP during Lok Sabha poll. He has been rightly punished by the people. The results reflect the changing political climate in the country,” Ramesh said.

The BJP, for its part, said it would review the results. It is reliably learnt that the RSS has long been concerned over the recent trends of serial inductions of leaders into the BJP, ideological commitments notwithstanding. On the eve of the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had inducted several people from other parties, saying it welcomed anyone who believed in the PM’s vision of “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas”. The byelection results may trigger a rethink of this strategy.

Only yesterday, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari reminded his colleagues of veteran LK Advani’s famous description of the BJP: “We are a party with a difference.”

BJP’s web broken

The web of fear and confusion woven by the BJP has been broken. Every class… wants to completely destroy the dictatorship & establish the rule of justice. — Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP