The results of the by-elections to 13 Assembly seats in seven states in which parties belonging to the INDIA bloc have made substantial gains appear to suggest that the voter disenchantment with the NDA which became manifest during the Lok Sabha elections continues while the Opposition has been able to sustain its momentum despite odds. The overwhelming message is that the defection politics that the BJP often resorts to appears to have lost appeal.
The BJP’s loss in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand becomes a tad bitter for the party as in the Lok Sabha elections it had a clean sweep of both states. It may be remembered the by-elections became necessary when three Independent MLAs resigned. The three, who later joined the BJP, were fielded by the party in the very same constituencies, but two of them have lost. The message is a reassurance for the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government and a warning shot at the BJP.
The Uttarakhand results also contain good tidings for the Congress. In Badrinath, the Congress defeated the same candidate who had won the 2022 election on a Congress ticket and then defected to the BJP, leading to the holding of the by-election. In Manglaur, the party made up for the loss it suffered at the hands of the BSP in the last elections. The clean sweep of the four seats by the Trinamul Congress of the bypolls in West Bengal, too, comes as a shocker for the BJP as the party had won only three of them in the last Assembly elections. In Punjab, it’s a big relief for the AAP as it was able to defeat the candidate who had won on the party’s ticket and later defected to the BJP. In Tamil Nadu, the decision of the main Opposition AIADMK not to contest the bypoll would have helped the DMK, but only in increasing its margin several-fold. The BJP had its consolation win in Madhya Pradesh where it managed to get the Congress turncoat to win again on its ticket, though by a whisker. But the Independent’s win in the Bihar by-election has more to do with local factors.
The spell crass communal politics had cast over the Indian voter seems to be wearing thin now.
