Bypoll results of seven seats in six states on Sunday did not bring cheer to the Congress as it lost its two sitting seats while BJP, TRS, RJD and Shiv Sena (Thackeray) won from seats they were expected to win.
Gainers in the latest round of bypolls were the BJP — which improved its performance by winning four seats as against its three sitting seats and TRS — which wrested a seat in Telangana overcoming the challenge of Congress turncoat who joined the BJP.
Congress lost its two sitting seats – Adampur in Haryana and Munugode in Telangana – it was holding after its MLAs Kuldeep Bishnoi and Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy switched sides to join the BJP.
While Bishnoi’s daughter Bhavya won against Congress candidate Jai Prakash by a margin of 15,740 votes, Reddy could not retain his seat as TRS’ K Prabhakar Reddy romped home in a bitterly contested fight with a margin of 10,113 votes.
In Munugode, Congress is relegated to a distant third with its candidate Palvai Sravanthi losing the deposit, raising questions about the party’s ability to remain the main opponent to the TRS as the BJP is seen surging bypoll after bypoll in Telangana.
Adampur is the stronghold of Bishnoi, the son of late Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, and the result is a setback for senior Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda. Bishnoi resigned from the seat after quitting from Congress recently following inner-party squabbles.
The bypoll results – the first in Bihar after JD(U) came out of the NDA to join hands to revive the Maha Gadbandhan (Grand Alliance) with RJD, Congress and the Left – were not particularly enthusiastic for the RJD as its margin in its sitting seat Mokama fell by more than half. This is the first time that the BJP contested this seat.
RJD’s Neelam Singh, who is the wife of Anant Singh whose disqualification following his conviction in an Arms Act led to the bypoll, defeated BJP’s Sonam Devi by a margin of 16,741. Anant Singh won the 2020 polls by a margin of 35,757.
RJD also could not capitalise on the Maha Gadbandhan support in Gopalganj as its nominee fell by a meagre 1,794 votes as BSP, which fielded Sadhu Yadav’s wife Indira, and AIMIM together got around 20,000 votes. BJP’s Kusum Devi scraped through the contest against RJD’s Mohan Gupta.
In other contests, BJP also retained UP’s Gola Gokarannath with Aman Giri, whose father Anant Giri’s death prompted the bypoll, defeating SP’s Vinay Tiwari, a former MLA, by 34,298 votes.
In Odisha’s Dhamnagar, BJP retained the seat by a margin of 9,881 with Suryabanshi Siraj defeating Abanti Das.
In Maharashtra’s Andheri East, Shiv Sena (Thackeray)’s Rutuja Latke won by a massive 64,959 votes after BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) did not put up candidates. Interestingly, NOTA garnered the second spot with 12,806 votes against Rutuja’s 66,530 votes. An independent candidate Rajesh Tripathi got 1,571 votes and became the distant runner-up.