On Friday, the results of significant by-elections for seven assembly seats were released. While the BJP as a whole took three seats, the opposition INDIA alliance took four. In Dhanpur and Boxanagar, two Tripura assembly seats, the BJP defeated the CPI(M) to win.
Additionally, the party kept Bageshwar’s assembly seat in Uttarakhand. Chandy Oommen, a candidate for the Congress party and the son of former chief minister Oommen Chandy, won the bypolls in Puthuppally, Kerala, by an unprecedented majority.
Trinamool Congress won the Dhupguri assembly seat in West Bengal by more than 4,300 votes over the BJP. Bebi Devi, a JMM candidate, won Dumri in Jharkhand by more than 17,000 votes. Last but not least, Samajwadi Party defeated BJP by more than 42,000 votes in the Ghosi seat in Uttar Pradesh. On September 5, elections were held in the following districts with higher voter turnout: Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Dumri in Jharkhand, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura, Puthuppally in Kerala, Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, and Dhupguri in West Bengal. The fact that these elections are the first to be contested following the creation of the opposition group INDIA makes them extremely important on both a state and national level.
