Major blow to Left governments in West Bengal and Kerala.

The Congress party today put up an impressive show in the by-elections in seven states, dealing major blows to the ruling Left Front in West Bengal and Kerala, besides wresting the key Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh from the Samajwadi Party.

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In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) snatched away four Assembly seats from the Samajwadi Party (SP) in its tally of seven of the 11 by-election seats. In the prestigious Lok Sabha by-election to Firozabad, actor-turned-Congress candidate Raj Babbar defeated Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, by an overwhelming margin of 85,343 votes. The seat was won in May by Dimple’s husband Akhilesh Yadav, who retained Kannauj and gave up Firozabad.

However, in all, the party won 10 of the 31 Assembly seats up for grabs. The by-elections were held in Uttar Pradesh (11), West Bengal (10), Kerala (3) and two each in Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, and one in Chhattisgarh.

In Kerala, the LDF suffered a blow in the politically-sensitive Kannur, where Congress candidate and former CPI(M) MP Abdullakutty emerged victorious by 12,000 votes over M V Jayarajan of the CPI(M). Abdullakutty, who represented Kannur twice in the Lok Sabha on a CPI(M) ticket, was expelled from the party a few months earlier following serious differences with the Left leadership, after which he joined the Congress.

Congress candidates Dominic Presentation trounced CPI(M)’s P N Sinulal in Ernakulam by over 8,000 votes, while his colleague A A Shukur retained the Alappuzha seat by defeating G Krishna Prasad of the CPI by 4,000 votes.

The by-polls were necessitated by resignation of sitting Congress MLAs K Sudhakaran (Kannur), K V Thomas (Ernakulam) and K C Venugopal (Alappuzha) on getting elected to the Lok Sabha.

The results showed that the Opposition United Democratic Front had been able to repeat its Lok Sabha performance when it bagged 16 of the 20 seats in the state.

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