Assembly Bypoll Results: ‘Changing political climate in country,’ says Congress as INDIA bloc bags 10 of 13 seats

Assembly Bypoll Results: INDIA bloc candidates registered victories in 10 of the 13 assembly seats that went to bypolls across seven states on July 10, as the counting of votes enters final phase on Saturday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won two seats in the bypolls. One seat went to an independent candidate, the Election Commission of India said.

Among the 13 seats, the Congress won two seats each in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand while the TMC has won all four seats in West Bengal. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party bagged the one seat that went to bypolls in Punjab and DMK won the seat in Tamil Nadu.

The two seats won by the BJP are in Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh. The Rupauli seat of Bihar has been won by independent candidate.

Congress wins 2, BJP 1 seat in Himachal Pradesh

Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, won the high-stakes Dehri bypolls. Congress candidate Thakur defeated Hoshyar Singh of the BJP by over 9,000 votes, according to Election Commission of India. Congress candidate Hardeep Singh Bawa has also won from Nalagarh seat in Himachal Pradesh defeating KL Thakur of the BJP by about 8,900 votes.

BJP candidate Ashish Sharma defeated Congress leader Pushpinder Verma by about 1500 votes in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur seat.

TMC sweeps West Bengal

Mamata Banerjee-led TMC swept West Bengal by winning all four seats. 

In Raiganj bypoll, TMC leader Krishna Kalyani defeated BJP leader Manas Kumar Ghosh by over 50,000 votes. Madhupurna Thakur of TMC defeated Binay Biswas of BJP by about 33,000 votes in Bagda seat. Mukut Adhikari of the TMC won the Ranaghat Dakshin seat by about 39,000 votes while another TMC candidate, Supti Pandey defeated BJP leader Kayan Chaubey by a margin of about 62,000 votes in the Maniktala Assembly bypoll.

AAP wins Punjab, Congress bags Uttarakhand

In Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Mohinder Bhagat has won Jalandhar West bypoll. Bhagat defeated BJP candidate Sheetal Angural by over 37000 votes. 

The Congress won both seats of Uttarakhand– Manglaur and Badrinath.

In Manglaur, Congress leader Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin defeated BJP's Kartar Singh Bhadana by a little narrow of about 400 votes. In Badrinath, Congress leader Lakhpat Butola defeated BJP's Rajendra Bhandari by over 5,000 votes.

“Both assembly elections in Uttarakhand have been won by the Indian National Congress. Manglaur was wrested from the BSP and in the face of dirty tactics by the BJP. In Badrinath, the sitting MLA was a Congressman who had switched to the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls. He has been rightly punished by the people and the Congress has held on to the seat. Both ways the results reflect the changing political climate in the country," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X. 

Independent Candidate wins Bihar

The DMK candidate  won the Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu Anniyur Siva that went to the bypolls. In Bihar's Rupauli seat, independent candidate Shankar Singh won the bypoll.

Bypolls to these 13 assembly seats in seven states, held on July 10, were necessitated following vacancies created due to deaths or resignations of incumbent MLAs from different parties.

NDA Vs INDIA

The bypolls are seen as significant test for the opposition INDIA bloc as it faced off against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance(NDA) in first electoral battle after Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

The elections, the results of which was announced on June 4, saw the BJP falling short of majority and opposition INDIA bloc gaining strength. The BJP finally bagged 240 Lok Sabha seats - 32 short of the majority.

Narendra Modi took oath Prime Minister for the third record time as BJP-led NDA managed to cross the halfway mark of 272 with an overall 293 seats. The Congress-led INDIA bloc clinched 232 seats.

Of the 13 seats which went to the polls, the BJP, the Congress and the TMC had each held two, while one seat each was held by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Independents held the remaining three seats.