Shared honours in bypoll results but INDIA has enough reason to take heart

• 09-Sep-2023
• 91

The results to the seven bypolls held for seven seats across six states – the first to be held since the formation of the Opposition’s INDIA alliance – were a mixed bag for the front and for the BJP-led NDA. If the BJP won three bypolls – two of them its sitting seats – INDIA allies won four. However, what might gladden the INDIA alliance’s heart is that in both the seats where it was in the race as a group – Dumri in Jharkhand and Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh – its candidates won. In the two other seats won by INDIA parties, its members were in different corners – the Congress retained Puthuppally in Kerala against the CPI(M), while the Trinamool Congress wrested Dhupguri from the BJP in Bengal, after taking on both the CPI(M) and Congress.