Lok Sabha
Dimple Yadav (Uttar Pradesh/Mainpuri) Samajwadi Party
Dimple Yadav takes over father-in-law Mulayam’s political legacy with aplomb by defeating Raghuraj Shakya of BJP by a massive margin of over two lakh votes.
The people of Mainpuri paid a heartfelt tribute to Mulayam Singh Yadav by choosing his daughter-in-law as the winner from the Lok Sabha seat. As per the political pundits, Dimple Yadav got sympathy votes in Mainpuri which has been the Samajwadi Party bastion. Mulayam Singh Yadav had represented Mainpuri for five times in Lok Sabha. This was Mainpuri’s first election without Mulayam Singh Yadav, since 1967. Mulayam’s son Akhilesh Yadav, who has been leading the party since 2017, had been pinning hope both on sympathy and on the caste arithmetic in the Yadav-dominated constituency, which has been loyal to the party. Even the ruling BJP chose Raghuraj Singh Shakya as the Shakya community is the second-largest electorate after Yadavs in Mainpuri. The election had been a straight BJP-SP fight as the two other main parties, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Paty, had decided to stay away and had not fielded their candidates in any of the seats.
Kedar Prasad Gupta (Bihar/ Kurhani) BJP
With the win of BJP’s Kedar Prasad Gupta, the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ received a setback when it lost the Kurhani seat to the BJP, a party CM Nitish Kumar broke up with barely four months ago. Kumar’s JD(U) blamed on ‘local factors’ for the defeat. The by-election was necessitated by the disqualification of Anil Kumar Sahani of RJD.
Savitri Manoj Mandavi (Chhattisgarh/ Bhanupratapur) Congress
The Congress retained the Bhanupratappur seat by defeating the BJP. With this, the opposition BJP has suffered a fifth successive defeat at the hands of the ruling Congress in the assembly bypolls held after the 2018 Chhattisgarh elections. The byelection was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MLA Manoj Singh Mandavi.
Barsha Singh Bariha (Odisha/Padampur) Biju Janata Dal
The BJD steamrolled the BJP in Padampur bypoll as Barsha Singh Bariha defeated Pradeep Purohit of the saffron party by a margin of 42,679 votes to retain the seat for the ruling party. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha. The poll outcome has dealt a blow to the BJP after the Dhamnagar bypoll success.
Anil Kumar Sharma (Rajasthan/ Sardarshahar) Congress
Congress’s Anil Sharma defeated BJP’s Ashok Kumar Pincha by a margin of 26,852 votes in Sardarshahar. The bypoll was held after the death of Anil’s father and senior Congress leader MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma. This was the first Assembly elections for Anil. In the 9 bypolls held in Rajasthan in the last four years, the Congress has won 7 times, and the BJP has won just 1.
Madan Bhaiya (Uttar Pradesh/Khatauli) Rashtriya Lok Dal
BJP failed to retain Khatauli as Rajkumari Saini, wife of 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots convict and MLA Vikram Saini, lost to Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Madan Bhaiyya, who had been fielded despite major opposition by the party members. Khatauli has more than 1.5 lakh OBC voters and Muslims constitute the single largest electorates with 80,000 voters.
Akash Saxena (Honey) (Uttar Pradesh/Rampur) BJP
BJP breached the impregnable fort of SP’s Mohd Azam Khan in Rampur Sadar as Akash Saxena defeated SP’s Asim Raza, a close confidante of Azam Khan, by a margin of 33,738 votes. The bypoll was held after the disqualification of Azam following his conviction in 2019 hate speech case. Asim accused police of intimidating voters.