In a significant victory for the INDIA bloc, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife, Kamlesh Thakur, secured the Dehra Assembly seat in Himachal Pradesh. Meanwhile, the alliance’s AAP candidate won the Jalandhar West seat, and Trinamool Congress captured two seats in West Bengal.
Kamlesh Thakur, a Himachal Pradesh Congress leader, defeated BJP nominee Hoshyar Singh by over 9,000 votes in Dehra. Additionally, her party colleague Hardeep Singh Bawa won the Nalagarh seat, while the BJP managed to win Hamirpur.
AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat emerged victorious in the Jalandhar West Assembly segment in Punjab, with a margin exceeding 30,000 votes.
In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress triumphed in the Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Bagda bypolls, and is leading in another seat.
In Uttarakhand, the BJP is trailing in the Manglaur seat, a constituency dominated by Muslim and Dalit voters, traditionally held by Congress or BSP. The ruling party is also behind in Badrinath.
The Bihar by-election was prompted by the resignation of MLA Bima Bharti, who left JD(U) to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket. Currently, JD(U) is leading.
In Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi constituency, DMK’s Anniyur Siva is leading against PMK’s C Anbumani and NTK’s K Abinaya.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Amarwara seat, located in Kamal Nath’s stronghold Chhindwara, BJP’s Kamlesh Shah is leading against Congress’ Dheeran Shah Invati.
Voting was conducted for 13 Assembly seats across seven states: four in West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Bihar, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The INDIA bloc governs four of these states, while the remaining have BJP or NDA governments.
These bypolls are the first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where BJP won 240 seats, 32 short of a majority. However, the NDA secured a total of 293 seats, surpassing the halfway mark of 272. The Congress-led INDIA bloc claimed 232 seats.
