By- Poll Elections – INDIA Vs. NDA – Scores settled at 4:3, Opposition Leaders call it a trailer before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections

The results for the by-poll elections for seven assembly seats across six states of India – Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura, Dumri in Jharkhand, Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, and Puthuppally in Kerala, that went for polling on September 5, were declared on Friday. While the Opposition Bloc INDIA, in their maiden venture bagged 4 of the 7 seats, the BJP managed the remaining three.

In what was considered to be a litmus test for the Opposition coalition INDIA against the BJP led NDA, ahead of the polls in 5 states across the country scheduled later this year and the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition alliance staked their claim over Kerala’s Puthuppally, West Bengal’s Dhupguri, Jharkhand’s Dumri, and Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi, while the BJP won the two seats in Tripura and Uttarakhand’s Beghaeshwar. Exuding confidence, several leaders of the Opposition alliance INDIA have called it a trailer for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, assertive of their victory.

It was a landslide victory for the Congress-UDF represented by Chandy Oomen in Kerala, where he won by a massive margin of more than 36,000 votes. "Just like my father, my politics will be people-oriented. I've seen the work of my father and I would like to go in that way. I will continue what my father started”, said Chandy Oomen, hopeful of carrying forward his father, the former Chief Minister Oomen Chandy’s legacy.

In West Bengal, the ruling TMC wrested the Dhupguri assembly seat in the Jalpaiguri district from BJP by over 4000 votes. After bagging a seat that was previously won by BJP in 2021, TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee said, I sincerely thank the people of Dhupaguri for putting their faith in us and voting in our support in the crucial Assembly by-election. The people of North Bengal are with us and believe in the mother-soil-people government's way of combining development, social welfare and empowerment. Bengal has voiced its opinion and soon the whole country will also voice its opinion. Jai Bangla! Win INDIA!”

BJP’S Dara Singh Chauhan faced a crushing defeat with a margin of 42,759 votes in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi to Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh. Calling a victory of INDIA, Pramod Tiwari, the Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha said, “The bumper victory of Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh in Ghosi confirms my claim that India's candidate will get more than 50 percent votes on every seat." Taking a jibe at the BJP, he said that INDIA will win and ‘save’ the country’s democracy from the ruling BJP Government’s ‘dictatorial regime’.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Bebi Devi retained the Dumri seat in Jharkhand by a staggering margin of more than 17,000 votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won two seats of Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura. Taking to X, senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sharma expressed his gratitude towards the voters of Tripura, “My gratitude to Tripura voters for their continued faith in policies of Hon PM Shri @narendramodi Ji and @BJP4India. The victory of BJP candidates in two Assembly bypolls by huge margins is heartening. Congratulations to BJP's Tafajjal Hossain on winning Boxanagar seat by over 30,000 votes and Bindu Debnath for clinching Dhanpur by 18,871 votes. They both defeated CPI(M) candidates”, he Tweeted. By defeating Congress by more than 2,400 votes, BJP’s Parwati Das bagged Uttrakhand’s Bageshwar Assembly seat.

However, many leaders have called these by elections a precursor of what lays in store for the Opposition Alliance INDIA in the elections, including the 2024 Lok Sabha elections that lie ahead. Mehbooba Mufti lauded the victories of the INDIA alliance that lay in tandem with their moto ‘judega Bharat, jeetega India.’ “Congratulations to the INDIA alliance @INCIndia,@HemantSorenJMM,@AITCofficial&@samajwadiparty for their spectacular wins against divisive forces. Not an easy feat given the combined might of the central government & its agencies. #judegabharat #jeetegaIndia”, she tweeted.