In cheer for INDIA bloc, SP retains Ghosi bypoll; BJP wins 3 seats

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh on Friday lost the Ghosi Assembly bypoll to the Samajwadi Party (SP)-led INDIA bloc of parties by 42,759 votes. The BJP lost in the prestigious contest despite Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues camping in the area for the BJP candidate, serial party hopper Dara Singh Chauhan.

The BJP’s Ghosi loss is reminiscent of its Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll defeats in April 2018, which paved the way for the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to come together for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In Ghosi, in Mau district, the Opposition bloc campaigned for the SP’s Sudhakar Singh, while the BSP did not field a candidate. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav credited the win to his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav’s efforts. Chauhan, a Cabinet minister in the Adityanath government, quit the BJP in January 2022 to win from Ghosi on an SP ticket in the March UP Assembly elections. He left the SP to return to the BJP in July this year.

Of the other six Assembly bypolls, for which results were announced on Friday, the BJP won three — two in Tripura and one in a close contest against the Congress in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar. In Tripura, the BJP retained the Dhanpur seat and wrested the Boxanagar seat from the CPI (M). In Boxanagar, the BJP candidate secured 34,146 votes, winning by 30,237 votes. The CPI (M) alleged rigging, pointing to the BJP candidate in Boxanagar securing 89 per cent of the polled votes and 71 per cent of the polled votes in Dhanpur.

In West Bengal’s Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress wrested the seat from the BJP in a tight contest, winning by 4,309 votes. The CPI (M) candidate, which the Congress supported, was a distant third. In Jharkhand, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha retained the Dumri seat.

In Kerala's Puthuppally bypoll, Congress’ Chandy Oommen won the seat, which his late father, former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, represented for five decades. The polling for the seven seats took place on September 5.