BJP Wins Key Tripura Stronghold, Samajwadi Party Holds Ghosi Seat in Bypolls

New Delhi: In a big boost to the BJP, it wrested one of the few remaining strongholds of the CPM in BJP-ruled Tripura, while one of the constituents of the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. group, the Samajwadi Party, managed to hold on to the Ghosi Assembly seat, where the bypoll was necessitated after party MLA Dara Singh Chauhan switched back to the saffron party, which he had quit ahead of the last Assembly polls in Yogi Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

Of the total seven Assembly seats in six states where bypolls were held on September 5, the BJP won three — Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar. The Opposition won four — the SP in Ghosi in BJP-ruled UP, the Congress in Puthuppally in Left-ruled Kerala, JMM Dumri in Opposition alliance-ruled Jharkhand and Trinamul Congress in Dhupguri in TMC-ruled West Bengal.

In some of the seats, including Dhupguri, Puthuppally and Bageshwar, more than one member party of the I.N.D.I.A group contested. A case in point is the Puthuppally Assembly constituency in Kerala. The Congress retained the seat in the state where its alliance partner, the Left, are its arch rivals.

Chandy Oommen, the son of late Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy and UDF candidate, won the Puthuppally Assembly bypoll.

The BJP's win in Tripura's Boxanagar, a Muslim-dominated constituency, is seen as a big boost for the party, as the Assembly seat was considered the stronghold of the CPM, which never lost it except once in 1988. BJP's Tafajjal Hossain defeated CPM's Mizan Hossain.

Tagged by the Opposition as the first major electoral contest between the BJP and the I.N.D.I.A alliance after the Opposition parties formed the grouping, the SP's candidate Sudhakar Singh defeated the BJP's Dara Singh Chauhan in Ghosi.

The bypoll was seen as a battle of prestige for both the BJP and the SP and also for Shivpal Yadav, brother of late SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. In the SP circle, there were talks that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had requested his uncle, with whom he has mended relations recently, to take command of the Ghosi bypoll, as Shivpal Yadav is famous within the Yadav-dominated party for his organisational skills.

Though the BJP failed to win the seat, which has a significant Yadav population, according to the buzz in the saffron party, Mr Chauhan had "insulted" the Yogi administration when he had quit the party in 2021, due to which the party cadre was not willing to seek votes for him.

Also, the Dalit votes shifted to the SP's upper caste candidate as the BSP did not field any candidate. Speculation is rife that Chauhan could be accommodated in the Legislative Council.

The SP chief said the Ghosi bypoll victory was the victory of the INDIA bloc and that it will continue in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

On Friday, former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma was declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from the state as the BJP leader was the only candidate to file nomination for the September 15 by-election. The by-election was necessitated due to the death of incumbent MP Hardwar Dubey, who was also from the BJP. The term of the seat is till November 2026.

The ruling JMM retained Jharkhand's Dumri seat, while the ruling TMC wrested Dhupguri in West Bengal from the BJP.

Reacting to the BJP's performance in Dhupguri, BJP IT cell head and co-incharge of the state Amit Malviya wrote on social media platform, "The BJP may not have won the Dhupguri Assembly constituency in West Bengal, but we are grateful to all the voters and karyakartas, who ensured that the BJP holds on to its vote share, despite a hostile and oppressive TMC regime."

He claimed the ruling party's "marginal victory" was an indication of times ahead before the general polls.

BJP's Parvati Das retained the Bageshwar seat in Uttarakhand, which fell vacant due to the demise of her husband Chandan Das.