The verdict of the bypolls to the four Parliamentary and 10 Assembly seats were out on Thursday, and it appears that the grand display of opposition unity at Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in was not for nothing. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power at the Centre and some of the states where the bypolls were held, received a hard drubbing which left it with just two wins in the 15 seats which went to polls on 28 May. The party lost three of the seats it previously held.
Seen as a litmus test of the mood of the electorate as the nation heads to polls early in 2019, the bypolls revealed a changing picture of the political landscape whose canvas has been increasingly dominated by the saffron colour since 2014.
Lok Sabha bypolls
The four Lok Sabha constituencies where bypolls were held are Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar in Maharashtra and the lone Parliamentary seat in Nagaland.
Kairana
This was the centre of a high-stake battle between the BJP and a joint opposition backed by Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and the Congress who supported the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan. The BJP won this seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Held by Hukum Singh, the bypoll was necessitated after his death. The BJP gave the ticket to Mriganka Singh, the eldest daughter of Hukum Singh.
Hasan defeated Singh by over 55,000 votes. After Gorakhpur and Phulpur, this was the third parliamentary seat the BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh since Yogi Adityanath came to power.
Kairana’s loss is especially hard-hitting because the ruling party went all-out during the campaigning to retain the seat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself addressed a massive gathering near here after inaugurating the Eastern Peripheral Expressway on 26 May where he delivered a political speech.
Palghar
Palghar in Maharashtra was the centre of attention because of the contest between BJP and its ally in the government Shiv Sena. It was the first time that the two allies, following months of sharp verbal exchanges, crossed swords for a seat.
The BJP held on to this seat as its candidate Rajendra Gavit defeated Shiv Sena’s Shriniwas Vanga. Gavit defeated Shriniwas by over 29,000 votes.
Shriniwas is the son of Chintaman Wanaga, the BJP MP whose death in January necessitated the bypoll. Gavit, on the other hand quit the Congress to join the BJP.
As per available figures, Gavit secured a little over 272,000 votes compared to Vanga’s 243,000 votes.
Bhandara-Gondia
The second parliamentary seat in Maharashtra which went for bypolls, the Bhandara-Gondia seat fell vacant after BJP MP Nana Patole quit over farmer issues and resigned from the party. Patole, who had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, returned to the Congress fold earlier this year.
Here, too, the BJP faced defeat as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Madhukar Kukde surged to the top with a margin of 40,097 votes over BJP candidate Hemant Patle, who was leading in the earlier rounds of counting.
Kohima
With 5,48,749 votes, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate Tokheho Yepthomi defeated Naga People’s Front (NPP) rival C Apok Jamir by over 1,55,922 votes in this lone constituency in Nagaland.
Jamir, who got 3,92,827 votes, is a former Rajya Sabha member and son of former chief minister SC Jamir.
The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is also the NDPP leader, had resigned from the Lok Sabha in February. In Nagaland, the BJP is an alliance party in the government.
Assembly bypolls
The 11 assembly bypolls took place in Palus Kadegaon in Maharashtra, Noorpur in Uttar Pradesh, Jokihat in Bihar, Gomia and Silli in Jharkhand, Chengannur in Kerala, Ampati in Meghalaya, Shahkot in Punjab, Tharali in Uttarakhand, Maheshtala in West Bengal and RR Nagar in Karnataka.
Ampati
Congress candidate Miani D Shira won this constituency giving her party 21 seats in the Meghalaya assembly – turning it into the single-largest party in the state and raising hopes of government formation. The daughter of Congress leader Mukul Sangma, bypoll on this seat was necessitated after the former chief minister vacated it in favour of Songsak. He had won both Songsak and Ampati in 27 February assembly elections.
Shira won the seat with a margin of just 3,191 votes beating her nearest rival Clement G Momin of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP). The seat has a total of 24,181 voters. NPP commands the highest number of seats in the coalition government in Meghalaya, of which BJP is a part.
Palus Kadegaon
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam, who passed away on 9 March. Kadam represented the seat on seven occasions. His son Vishwajeet Kadam got the ticket from the Congress.
Vishwajeet was elected unopposed from the seat after the BJP withdrew its candidate Sangramsinh Deshmukh, who is the president of Sangli zilla parishad and deputy chairman of Sangli district cooperative bank.
The seat, one of the 288 in Maharashtra assembly, is located in the western region of the state in Sangli district.
Shahkot
Congress party candidate Hardev Singh Laddi won Shahkot Assembly bypoll in Jalandhar district of Punjab by defeating his nearest rival, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) nominee Naib Singh Kohar, by a margin of 38,801 votes. Laddi got 82,745 votes while Akali Dal’s candidate Kohar polled 43,944 votes, officials said.
The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of SAD MLA Ajit Singh Kohar in February this year.
With this victory, Congress’ strength in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha reaches 78, two-third majority in the House.
Jokihat
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Shahnawaz Alam defeated Janata Dal (United)’s candidate Murshid Alam by over 40,000 votes – a margin which was more than the total votes polled by JD(U). Shahnawaz Alam is the younger brother of Sarfaraz Alam, who was JD(U)’s lawmaker in Jokihat but joined RJD after Nitish Kumar allied with the BJP.
Sarfaraz recently contested from the Araria Lok Sabha seat, represented by his father RJD MP Taslimuddin till his death in March, and won. The seat in eastern Bihar has a 70 per cent Muslim population.
Noorpur
Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Naeem-ul-Hasan got 94,866 votes against 89,188 garnered by his nearest rival Avni Singh of the BJP in the bypoll to this assembly constituency located in Bijnore district.
The bypolls were necessitated following the death of sitting BJP legislator Lokendra Singh in a road accident in February. The BJP had fielded the widow of Lokendra Singh, Avni Singh from the seat. A 57.31 per cent turnout was witnessed on 28 May election day.
Gomia and Silli
Main opposition in the state, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won both Silli and Gomia assembly bypolls. What makes the victory even more interesting is that both seats were won by women candidates.
Seema Devi Mahto defeated All Jharkhand Students Union’s (AJSU) Sudesh Mahto by 10,000 votes in Silli, which is located in Jharkhand district. Seema Mahto is the wife of Amit Mahto, who lost his assembly seat after being convicted and awarded a jail term.
Babita Devi bested AJSU’s Lambodar Mahto and BJP’s Madhav Lal Singh by around 4,000 votes in Gomia. Babita Devi is the wife of Yogendra Mahto, who was disqualified as a legislator after being convicted and awarded a two-year jail term in a case.
Opposition parties Congress and JVM supported JMM candidates in both Gomia and Silli.
Chengannur
CPI(M) candidate Saji Cherian won Chengannur, a municipal town in the Alappuzha district, with a record margin of 20,956 votes. He secured 67,303 votes against Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate D Vijayakumar, who got 46,347 votes.
In third place was BJP’s state president PS Sreedharan Pillai, who received 35,270 votes.
The death of sitting CPI(M) lawmaker KK Ramachandran Nair in January necessitated the bypoll on 28 May. Saji Cheriyan is CPM’s Alappuzha district secretary. The seat was considered a Congress bastion.
Tharali
The consolation for the BJP in the carnage was Tharali assembly seat in Uttarakhand. The saffron party’s Munni Devi won the Tharali by-election by a narrow margin of 1,872 votes beating Congress candidate Jeet Ram, who was contesting a second time since 2017.
Munni Devi is the widow of BJP MLA Magan Lal Shah whose death due to swine flu earlier this year necessitated the bypoll. In 2017, Shah had defeated Jeet Ram by 4,921 votes.
The Congress had extensively campaigned for its nominee with former chief minister Harish Rawat, state chief Pritam Singh and Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat participating in the process.
Maheshtala
As expected, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress retained the Maheshtala assembly seat by defeating the BJP by a huge margin.
TMC’s Dulal Das bagged 1,04,818 votes as against just 41,992 of BJP’s Sujit Kumar Ghosh. Like Jokihat in Bihar, the margin of difference in Maheshtala was much more than the votes polled by the losing party.
The Congress joined hands with the CPI(M) by backing the latter’s candidate Pravat Chowdhury, who came in third.
The seat was held by TMC’s Kasturi Das since 2016 whose death caused the bypoll. Dulal is Kasturi’s husband and chairman of the Maheshtala municipality.
RR Nagar
Though all of Karnataka went to polls on 12 May, by-elections for this constituency in Bengaluru region was rescheduled for 28 May by the Election Commission because of the recovery of 9,567 electoral photo identity cards from a flat in Jalahalli on 9 May.
The Congress, which had won 78 seats in the recently concluded Karnataka assembly elections, added one more seat to its tally by clinching the RR Nagar constituency from both the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP.
Congress leader Muniratna secured 1,08,064 votes. BJP’s Thulsi Muniraju Gowda came in second with 82,572 votes and JD(S)’ GH Ramachandra secured 60,380 votes.
The contest was interesting because Congress and JD(S), who are allies in the government, chose to fight separately.