Status quo prevailed in five of the eight Assembly bypolls held across the country along with the Bihar elections, with the Congress picking up two of the gains and the PDP one.
The one seat each that the Congress bagged in Telangana and Rajasthan was the only saving grace for the party that was pulverised in Bihar.
The Jubilee Hills victory in Telangana is a big gain for the Congress as the party had never won the seat since the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The Anta seat in Rajasthan has alternated between the Congress and the BJP in every election for the past several years.
Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP won in Budgam, dealing a blow to the Omar Abdullah government whose poularity in Jammu and Kashmir had been on stake. The seat had been vacated by Omar after he won from both Budgam and Ganderbal last year in the first elections held since 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir lost statehood.
The Congress’s Jubilee Hills win is being seen partly as a result of the support extended to the candidate by the AIMIM and the late October decision of the Revanth Reddy government to make cricketer turned politician Mohammad Azharuddin a minister with an eye on the decisive Muslim vote in the Assembly segment.
The twin developments appeared to have helped the Congress candidate, Naveen Yadav, tide over the emotional quotient the BRS introduced into the election by fielding the widow of Maganti Gopinath, whose death necessitated the bypoll.
In the other five seats — Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir, Ghatsila in Jharkhand, Dampa in Mizoram, Nuapada in Odisha and Tarn Taran in Punjab — the party holding the Assembly segment retained their heft. While the BJP won Nagrota, Ghatsila went to the JMM, Dampa to the Mizo National Front, Nuapada to the BJP and Tarn Taran to the AAP.
Of the five seats where status quo prevailed, the Nuapada result is significant. The BJD has been pushed to the third position, with the Congress moving to second place from the fourth it occupied in May 2024. The Congress’s upward mobility in this seat is partly due to the fact that the party decided to give the ticket to Ghasiram Majhi, who had come second in May 2024 despite contesting as an Independent.
In Nuapada, the Congress was not alone in poaching a potential winner. The BJP swooped in on sitting BJD MLA Rajendra Dhokalia’s son Jay to step in for his father soon after the latter’s death forced a by-election in the Assembly segment. The BJP, which has always criticised its rivals for dynastic politics, did not shy away from picking another child to step in for her father when the Nagrota seat in Jammu fell vacant following the death of Devendra Singh Rana.
In Ghatsila, too, the JMM decided to live up to the allegation of being a dynastic party and picked Somesh Chandra Soren, son of MLA Ramdas Soren, to follow in
his father’s footsteps after the latter died in office.
In Punjab, the AAP bagged the Tarn Taran seat, pushing the Congress and the BJP to fourth and fifth positions respectively, with the Shiromani Akali Dal coming second.
In Mizoram, the Opposition Mizo National Front, an NDA ally, retained the Dampa Assembly segment, which had fallen vacant following the death of the party MLA. The bypoll result should come as a boost for the MNF before the Lai Autonomous District Council poll on December 3 and the Aizawl Municipal Corporation elections next year.
The MNF’s R. Lalthangliana defeated Vanlalsailova of the ruling Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) by 562 votes, securing 40.23 per cent of the 6,981 total votes polled. His ZPM rival bagged 36.61 per cent (6,419) of the votes. Congress candidate John Rotluangalian finished third with 2,394 votes, followed by the BJP’s Lalhmingthanga (1,541 votes) and People’s Conference Party’s K. Zahmingthanga (50).