Bypolls: BJP draws a blank, MVA looks at 'Kolhapur formula'

The BJP drew a blank in the five bypolls - a Lok Sabha and four Assembly seats - the results of which were announced on Saturday. While the results cheered the opposition, especially Maharashtra's MVA alliance, to the BJP's solace, only one of its five defeats came in a state it rules.

The ruling MVA alliance in Maharashtra termed its win in the Kolhapur North seat as the defeat of the BJP's "divisive politics". The victory came in the backdrop of the controversy over the use of loudspeakers by mosques, which the MNS had stirred and the BJP backed. While the Congress managed to retain the seat, the alliance was upbeat about the success of their "Kolhapur formula" since the coalition partners fought unitedly, as they plan to do in the forthcoming civic polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In Bengal, ironically enough, the TMC won the two seats - Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge Assembly seats - with former BJP MPs as its candidates. It won the Asansol seat for the first time ever, with Shatrughan Sinha defeating BJP's Agnimitra Paul, a fashion designer, by 3.03 lakh votes.

In the Ballygunge seat, TMC's Babul Supriyo defeated CPI(M)'s Saira Shah Halim, the daughter-in-law of former Bengal Assembly Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim and niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah, by 20,228 votes. The seat fell vacant after the demise of senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee, who had secured over 70 per cent of the votes in the 2021 Assembly polls, while Supriyo secured nearly 50 per cent, a dip of over 20 per cent. A section of Muslim voters, unhappy with the TMC's candidate choice, voted for the Left. Supriyo, a former union minister, was the BJP's MP from Asansol in 2014 and 2019 but quit that party and the Asansol seat last year.

In other results, the ruling Congress wrested the Khairagarh seat from the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), securing over 52% votes with the BJP at number two. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won the Bochahan assembly seat, increasing its numbers in Bihar Assembly. The seat was held by the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), an ally of the BJP in the 2020 Assembly polls in Bihar, but has since parted ways and was pushed to the third position.

The BJP's results in Bengal would worry it as its candidate was pushed to number three in Ballygunge and lost its sitting Asansol seat by a considerable margin. The Ballygunge result would also encourage the CPI (M), which increased its vote share from 6% to 30%. There is buzz that Supriyo could be inducted into Mamata Banerjee's ministerial team.

In Bihar's Bochahan reserved seat, RJD's Amar Kumar Paswan secured 48.5 per cent votes to defeat BJP's state general secretary Baby Kumari convincingly. The seat fell vacant after the death of VIP's MLA Musafir Paswan.

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