Himachal Pradesh Congress leader Kamlesh Thakur defeated her nearest rival, BJP nominee Hoshyar Singh, by over 9,000 votes in the Dehra constituency. Her party colleague is also leading in the Nalagarh seat, while the BJP is ahead in Hamirpur.
AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won the bypoll in Punjab’s Jalandhar West assembly segment by more than 30,000 votes.
In West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won the Raiganj and Bagda bypolls and is leading on the remaining two seats.
The BJP is currently trailing in Manglaur, a Muslim- and Dalit-dominated seat In Uttarakhand, that has been held either by Congress or the BSP so far. The ruling party is also trailing in Badrinath.
The Bihar byelection was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) several times in the past but quit the party recently to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket. The JD(U) is currently ahead.
In Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi assembly constituency, ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s candidate Anniyur Siva (alias Sivashanmugam A) is leading over Pattali Makkal Katchi’s (PMK) C Anbumani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s K Abinaya.
The by-election in the Amarwara assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh Chhindwara district, a stronghold of former chief minister Kamal Nath, is witnessing a close fight between BJP’s Kamlesh Shah and Congress’ Dheeran Shah Invati. Kamlesh Shah is currently leading.
The voting was held in 13 Assembly seats across seven states — four in West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Bihar, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
The 13 Assembly seats that went to polls were Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda and Maniktala in West Bengal; Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh. Four of these states are ruled by INDIA bloc constituents while the rest have a BJP or NDA government.
These bypolls were the first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP winning 240 seats – 32 short of the majority. The NDA, however, managed to cross the halfway mark of 272 with a total tally of 293 seats. The Congress-led INDIA bloc clinched 232 seats.
(With agency inputs)