Signs of serious fault lines started emerging in the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid at reclaiming power in 2019 after yesterday’s by-elections results in 11 Vidhan Sabha and 4 Lok Sabha seats across several states saw a united opposition making big gains.
The biggest victory for the opposition came in the form of western Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana parliamentary constituency as Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Tabassum Hasan defeated Mriganka Singh of BJP by a margin of more than 50,000 votes. By-elections in Kairana had been declared after the seat’s former MP Hukum Singh, who is Mriganka Singh’s father, passed away last year.
A united opposition alliance comprising of SP–BSP and Congress was successful in UP’s Noorpur assembly seat as well. Samajwadi Party’s Naim Ul Hasan managed to beat BJP’s candidate in this constituency, which is otherwise considered to be the saffron party’s stronghold.
Congress on its own managed to win in Punjab’s Shahkot constituency, Ampati assembly seat of Meghalaya, and even in Karnataka’s RR Nagar, which BJP was expecting to bag comfortably using sympathy votes following BS Yeddyurappa’s resignation as Chief Minister of the state.
While NCP won Maharashtra’s Bhandara-Gondia seat, TMC managed to register victories in Maheshtala, RJD bagged Bihar’s Jokhihat and the Left won Chenganur in Kerala. Hemant Soren-led JMM also emerged victorious in two Jharkhand assembly seats.
Meanwhile, BJP managed to bag Uttarakhand’s Tharali constituency and its ally NDPP won a Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland. It also beat ally Shiv Sena and a Congress candidate to win Palghar Lok Sabha by-elections.