As the precedent prevails, by-elections in all eight legislative assembly constituencies of northeastern states were won by the ruling parties. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) established a one-sided victory in Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim by-polls. The saffron party won three assembly seats in Assam, and its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL), emerged victorious in one seat each. Meghalaya’s lone seat went to the National People’s Party (NPP) nominee. On the other hand, two candidates of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) were declared winners unopposed by the Election Commission of India (thus evading polling) in the tiny Himalayan State.

The voting in all seats took place on 13 November to fill up the vacant space as the respective legislators of Assam and Meghalaya participated in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and won the electoral battles. The counting of votes in EVMs from all seats (along with other assembly seats in mainland states and two parliamentary constituencies in Kerala and Maharashtra) was done on 23 November, and results surfaced by the evening hours. Amazingly, the special elections scheduled for a total of 48 assembly seats in 14 states divulged an important fact that no less than 41 assembly constituencies needed by-polls, as those seats were vacated by the respective MLAs after they got elected to the lower house of Indian Parliament early this year.

The Samaguri assembly seat in central Assam, which was deserted by five-time Indian  National Congress legislator Rakibul Hussain after becoming a parliamentarian, witnessed a series of violent incidents where both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress flexed muscles since the early days of by-polling. Frequent tussles between the supporters of both the parties even claimed the life of a saffron supporter and many others were left injured. Allegations and counter-allegations were raised by both the party leaders. Young BJP nominee Diplu Ranjan Sarmah established an impressive victory against the Congress candidate Tanzil Hussain with a margin of over 24,000 votes. Initially, Tanzil, who is the son of former minister Rakibul Hussain, was assumed to win the electoral battles as it’s a Muslim majority constituency. Diplu Ranjan was, in fact, the only non-Muslim candidate out of 11 individuals in the fray.

Another BJP nominee, Diganta Ghatowal, won from the Behali seat, defeating his nearest rival (Congress’s Jayanta Bora) with a difference of over 9000 votes. The eastern Assam seat was vacated by BJP legislator Ranjit Dutta after winning the last general elections. Both the candidates from CPI-ML (Lakhikanta Kurmi) and Aam Aadmi Party (Ananta Gogoi) lost their deposits in the eastern Assam seat. The Dholai (Schedule Caste) seat in southern Assam that became vacant after BJP legislator Parimal Suklabaidya got elected in LS polls was retained by saffron candidate Nihar Ranjan Das, defeating Congress nominee Dhrubajyoti Purkayastha by a margin of over 9,000 votes.

Similarly, AGP nominee Diptimayee Choudhury won from the Bongaigaon constituency, defeating Congress candidate Brajenjit Singha with a difference of over 35,000 votes. The western Assam seat was represented by veteran AGP leader Phanibhushan Choudhury (Diptimayee’s husband) for many decades, and he vacated it after winning the parliamentary elections. The highest margin of winning votes (over 37,000) was observed in the Sidli (Schedule Tribe) constituency, where UPPL nominee Nirmal Kr Brahma defeated Shuddho Kr Basumatary of the Bodoland People’s Front. As UPPL legislator Jayanta Basumatary participated in the LS polls successfully, the by-polls in the northern Assam seat were necessitated.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma fielded his wife (Dr Mehtab Chandee Agitok Sangma) as an NPP candidate for by-polls in the Gambegre seat of the Garo Hills locality, where she defeated nearest electoral rival Sadhiarani Sangma of Trinamool Congress, with a margin of over 4,000 votes. The election became necessary as its legislator, Saleng A Sangma (Congress) vacated the seat after winning the LS polls (where he defeated CM Sangma’s sister, Agatha). The saffron party also unsuccessfully put its candidate (Bernard Marak), where the Congress nominee Jingjang M Marak got the third position.

The failure of Congress in winning any seat in by-polls of both Assam and Meghalaya invited chastisement for the party leaders in general and Parliamentarian Gaurav Gogoi in particular. Son of Assam’s former chief minister Tarun Gogoi and currently the deputy leader of Congress in the LS, Gaurav was severely criticized by various regional political party leaders in the state as he single-handedly initiated a contest in all five seats without leaving any space for a proposed opposition alliance, Asom Sonmilito Morcha (which wanted Congress support for the Behali seat in vain).

Sikkim chief minister, Prem Singh Tamang projected his son (Aditya Tamang Golay) as an SKM nominee from the Soreng-Chakung assembly seat, where his lone opponent Prem Bahadur Bhandari of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) left the electoral battle. Another seat (Namchi-Singhithang) went to the ruling party nominee Satish Chandra Rai after his rival Danial Rai (SDF) preferred to leave the contest. During the last assembly elections in 2024, conducted simultaneously with LS polls, CM Tamang won from two seats, and he vacated the Soreng-Chakung seat (to continue with the Rhenock constituency) that necessitated the by-polls. CM’s wife, Krishna Kumari Rai, won from the Namchi-Singhithang seat, but she resigned (reasons best known to her only) soon after taking the oath.

When debates sparked as five seats of Assam (where legislative assembly elections are due by 2026) embraced by-polls for putting sitting MLAs in the parliamentary elections, other states also carried the same blameworthiness. According to the ECI, except for seven assembly constituencies, all other seats became vacant as their representatives shifted their working space to New Delhi after the parliamentary electoral successes. One may wonder how all these legislators became so essential for the concerned political parties (irrespective of their ideologies or position in the governments) to achieve electoral successes in the general elections! Was it not possible for the party leaderships to pick up fresh candidates with a higher percentage of winnability (and allowing the MLAs to complete their terms) for the parliamentary polls?

In the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, where nine assembly constituencies went to the special elections, eight seats were vacated by the legislators to become MPs. Saffron legislators Atul Garg, Vinod Kumar Bind, Anoop Pradhan Balmiki and Praveen Patel left the Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Khair and Phulpur seats respectively. Similarly, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, along with SP legislators Ziaur Rehman and Lalji Verma, abandoned the Karhal, Kundarki and Katehari seats, respectively. Chandan Chauhan (RLD) left the Meerapur seat. In another BJP-ruled state (Rajasthan), Congress legislators Brijendra Singh Ola, Harish Chandra Meena and Murari Lal Meena left Jhunjhunu, Deoli-Uniara and Dausa seats respectively. RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal left the Khinwsar seat and Raj Kumar Roat (BAP) vacated the Chorasi constituency.

By-polls in all six constituencies of West Bengal became necessary as the respective legislators successfully participated in the national elections. The ruling Trinamool Congress representatives Jagdish Chandra Basunia, Partha Bhowmick, Sk Nurul Islam, June Maliah and Arup Chakraborty left the Sitai, Naihati, Haroa,  Medinipur and Taldangra seats respectively. BJP legislator Manoj Tigga vacated the Madarihat seat. In AAP-ruled Punjab, four sitting MLAs joined the House of People. AAP representatives Raj Kumar Chabbewal and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer vacated the Chabbewal and Barnala seats, respectively. Congress legislators Raja Warring and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa abandoned Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak seats, respectively.

Bihar embraced by-polls to fill up four assembly seats as the legislators (Sudhakar Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal from Ramgarh, another RJD representative Surendra Prasad Yadav from Belganj, Sudama Prasad of CPI-ML-L from Tarari, and Jitan Ram Manjhi of HAM-Secular from the Imamganj seat) left for the national capital as parliamentarians. Three assembly seats in Karnataka were vacated by sitting MLAs, namely Basavaraj Bommai (BJP) from Shiggaon, E. Tukaram (INC) from Sandur, and HD Kumaraswamy (JD-S) from the Channapatna constituency. Similarly, two seats in Kerala fell vacant as Congress legislator Shafi Parambil vacated Palakkad and K Radhakrishnan (CPM) the Chelakkara constituency. In Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP) vacated Budhni, whereas Chhattisgarh’s Raipur City South was left by Brijmohan Agrawal (BJP) and Gujarat’s Vav seat by Geniben Nagaji Thakor (INC).

If at all the mainstream political parties behaved responsively, the exercise of recent by-polls could have been limited to less than seven assembly constituencies. As the people of India are watching an initiative under the ‘one nation, one election’ policy to go for simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies, and local government bodies across the country to reduce the electoral expenditure, these statists simply contradict the objective. Isn’t it time for concerned electorates to rise above their loyalty, affiliation, or inclination to political parties and stand united for a colossal electoral reform in the largest democracy on the globe?

The writer is a Guwahati-based special representative of The Statesman