Legislative Council elections in four states—out of the six states that have bicameral legislatures—have thrown up a mixed picture overall. It was a rude reality check for the Congress, which won only one of the 28 seats up for grabs. While the BJP performed well, winning 13 seats, and its NDA allies won three more, warnings were delivered in some of the coalition’s pocket boroughs. This round of elections was for teachers’ and graduates’ seats, which together account for a sixth of the Legislative Councils’ seats.
The Congress drew a blank in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. The victory of its renominated candidate in the Nagpur graduates’ seat—one of the three it contested in Maharashtra—was a saving grace in an election conducted by ballot, which the party demands for all polls. Its biggest setback was in its stronghold Karnataka, where the BJP-JD(S) combine swept all four seats. This jolt, delivered in D K Shivakumar’s first major electoral test, cost the Congress its narrow majority in the Karnataka Legislative Council, despite extensive campaigning by its leaders. The ruling party now has 37 members in the state’s 75-member Upper House. Among the three seats the BJP retained was the Karnataka State Northeast teachers’ constituency, which covers Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s home turf, Kalaburagi. JD(S)’s victory in Bengaluru teachers’ constituency over a five-time Congress MLC was an inflection point. NDA partners successfully transferred their votes, which senior Congress leaders admit will have to be considered while formulating the party’s strategy for 2028. Congress’s poor showing in Uttar Pradesh ahead of next year’s Assembly polls will likely affect its seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party.
The polls were not without caveats for the BJP, too. It lost to the SP in Varanasi, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha. The BJP also lost in Nagpur, the RSS bastion and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s hometown, where it faced defeat in the hands of the Congress for the first time in 2020. In Bihar, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj debuted in the Council by defeating the Congress MLC from Darbhanga teachers’ constituency.
Educated voters in four politically significant states, which together command more than a third of the Lok Sabha seats, have issued an alert to all major parties. Course corrections should be in order.