New Delhi: The assembly bypolls results of five assembly seats across four states declared Monday came as a booster shot for a beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), provided a leg up to the Congress in a pre-election year in Kerala, and reminded the BJP of the formidable Trinamool fort in West Bengal.
The AAP, which plunged into despair after losing power in its home turf of Delhi 4 months ago, not only retained the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab, the only state it currently governs, but also held on to the Visavadar constituency in BJP-ruled Gujarat, and that too with a bigger margin.
The victory of AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora—who will now have to vacate his Rajya Sabha seat—in Ludhiana (West) also opens the door for the party to send one of its top leaders to the Upper House of the Parliament.
AAP’s decision to nominate Arora, a businessman with assets worth nearly Rs 500 crore, as its candidate for the Ludhiana (West) seat sparked speculation that Arvind Kejriwal—former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener—was set to enter the Rajya Sabha. However, on Monday, Kejriwal himself dismissed these reports, stating that he does not plan to do so. He kept alive the possibility of former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia making the move instead, saying that the party’s Political Affairs Committee will pick Arora’s replacement.
AAP’s former Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia, who was a popular face of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti that spearheaded the reservation protests in the state in 2015, defeated BJP’s Kirit Patel by a margin of 17,000 votes in Visavadar.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Bhupendrabhai Bhayani had won the seat as an AAP candidate, only to switch over to the BJP, necessitating the bypoll.
Arora, meanwhile, bagged Ludhiana (West), defeating the Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 10,637 votes. The AAP’s Gurpreet Singh Gogi, who died in January this year after accidentally shooting himself while cleaning his firearm at home, had won the seat in the 2022 assembly polls.
“This shows that the people of Punjab are very happy with the work of our government. The people of Gujarat are now fed up with BJP and they are seeing hope in the Aam Aadmi Party. Both the Congress and BJP contested the elections together in these places with the same objective—defeating the AAP. But people rejected both these parties,” Kejriwal posted on X.
Addressing a press conference, his first after losing the Delhi assembly polls, Kejriwal signalled the AAP would use the bypolls success to drum up the narrative that people rate the AAP above the Congress in Punjab and Gujarat. He attacked the Congress leadership saying it enjoys a “cosy relationship” with the BJP.
“These bypolls showed how the Congress leadership helped the BJP just to defeat the AAP. The Congress has become the kathputli (puppet) of the BJP. I appeal to the Congress workers to realise this and join the AAP,” he said.
In Kerala’s Nilambur constituency, Aryadan Shoukath of the Congress, which leads the United Democratic Front, in Opposition for the last decade, defeated the CPI(M)’s M. Swaraj by 11,077 votes. P.V. Anvar, whose resignation as a Left-backed independent MLA necessitated the bypoll, finished third with 19,760 votes contesting as an Independent.
The Congress had pulled out all the stops to win the seat, which falls under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency represented by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who campaigned extensively for Shoukath. The ruling CPI(M), a member of the opposition’s INDIA bloc, turned it into a prestige battle by bringing in Chief Minister Pinrayai Vijayan to canvas for Swaraj.
“We worked as a team, each one with commitment and single pointed focus, that is the most important lesson of this success…Most of all a big thank you to my sisters and brothers of Nilambur for your support. Your trust and belief in the values of our constitution, and in the UDF’s vision for progress will be the guiding light for our way forward,” Priyanka posted on X.
In the run up to the polls, the CPI(M) and the Congress had called each other “communal” in Kerala; the AAP had accused the Congress of being “treacherous” in Gujarat; while the Congress-Left alliance in West Bengal had alleged a TMC-BJP “nexus” in West Bengal.
It’s not just in Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat that INDIA bloc allies were locked in a bitter contest in the bypolls. Even in West Bengal’s Kaliganj seat, the Congress-Left alliance had a candidate in the fray, even as the fight was primarily between the TMC and the BJP.
In the end, the TMC’s Alifa Ahmed, the daughter of Nasiruddin Ahmed whose death led to the bypoll, won the seat by a margin of 50,049 votes against the BJP’s Abhijit Ghosh. Kabil Uddin Sheikh of the Congress, which had won the seat in 2016, finished third with 28,348 votes.
In Gujarat’s Kadi, the only constituency where the BJP and the Congress had a direct contest, the former comfortably triumphed, winning by a margin of 39,452 votes.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: UDF eyes comeback in Kerala with Nilambur bypoll win, Independent PV Anvar plays spoiler for CPI(M)
