INDIA shining

A month after its impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls, the INDIA bloc has upstaged the BJP in the Assembly byelections in seven states, winning 10 seats out of 13. The Congress won four seats — two each in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh — while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) clinched all four in West Bengal. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the Jalandhar West seat in Punjab and the DMK bagged the Vikravandi constituency in Tamil Nadu. The BJP got one seat each in Himachal and Madhya Pradesh, while an independent candidate won a seat in Bihar.

The victories in Uttarakhand and Himachal are a morale-booster for the Congress as the party had suffered a rout in both states at the hands of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. The same holds true for AAP, which was under pressure after having won just three seats out of 13 in the Punjab parliamentary battle. Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann can breathe easy for now. The TMC and the DMK — the ruling parties in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, respectively — have strengthened their position. For the BJP, the losses are another setback after it failed to get a majority on its own in the Lower House. The reversals are particularly significant in Uttarakhand, where the party is in power and had swept the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The bypoll results augur well for the resurgent Opposition, which made its presence felt in the recent session of Parliament. INDIA is looking to upset the BJP applecart in Haryana and Maharashtra, which will witness Assembly elections later this year. However, there is no room for complacency in the Opposition camp as the saffron party has a knack for winning elections against heavy odds. What the BJP needs is honest introspection to find out why things are going wrong and how it can do course correction.