BJP's winning streak in by-elections continued with a 4-out-of-6 scorecard. The bonus results included a reality check for Nitish Kumar's reorganised Grand Alliance in Bihar, the first defeat for Naveen Patnaik's BJD in an Odisha by election in 13 years, a close race against TRS in Munugode, and a blank for Congress in all six states.
Kusum Devi of the BJP holding onto her late husband's Gopalganj seat in Bihar was as much of a shock to the Mahagathbandhan as the saffron party gave Nitish's coalition a run for its money in Mokama following Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's all-out campaign. “We contested Mokama for the first time in three decades but our candidate performed better than all previous runners-up,” Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said.
Telangana’s Munugode bypoll, which BJP had treated as a test case ahead of the bigger battle for the state, delivered a dud for Congress and a neck-and-neck contest between the two main contenders that saw TRS’s Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy pulling away from BJP’s.
In Odisha, BJP’s Suryabanshi Suraj retained the Dhamnagar seat that was last held by his late father Bishnu Charan Sethi by eroding BJD’s vote share further from 45% in 2019 to 43%. BJD’s first bypoll loss since 2009 is seen as a setback for CM Naveen ahead of next month’s Padampur by election and the 2024 state elections.
Haryana saw the third generation of ex-CM Bhajan Lal’s clan fly the BJP flag in the Adampur seat of Hisar district for the first time. Bhavya Bishnoi, the 29-year-old grandson of Bhajan Lal, defeated Congress candidate Jai Prakash by 15,740 votes to win the district for the 16th time in just over 50 years for his extended family. The seat belonged to Congress till Bhavya’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi switched to BJP and resigned from the assembly. BJP now has 41 MLAs in the 90-member House.
