INDIA heads for landslide victory in key polls in 13 seats across 7 states

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 13, 2024: The Opposition INDIA alliance, which gave a tough fight to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, has come out on top in the by-elections to 13 Assembly seats across seven states. The INDIA bloc has won four seats and is ahead on six other seats.

The Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), AAP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are the INDIA bloc parties that fielded candidates in the bypolls held on Wednesday in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

In Punjab, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West seat by over 23,000 votes. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidates have taken the lead in four seats, with BJP trailing behind in each constituency.

Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur, who made her electoral debut, won the Dehra elections.. In the state, the Congress has been leading in Nalagarh too, while BJP’s Ashish Sharma is ahead in Hamirpur.

In West Bengal, the TMC has won four seats, with its candidates defeating BJP opponents by significant margins. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK’s Anniyur Siva is leading by 58,785 votes in the Vikravandi assembly seat.

In Uttarakhand, Congress candidates are leading in both the Badrinath and Manglaur seats, while in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s Kamslesh Pratap Shahi is leading in the Amarwar seat. In Bihar, the JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal is trailing behind an Independent candidate in the Rupauli seat.

The counting of votes for the 13 legislative assembly seats spread across seven states began on Saturday morning. Voting was held on Wednesday for the assembly seats in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.

These bypolls were the first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP winning 240 seats - 32 short of the majority. The NDA, however, managed to cross the halfway mark of 272 with a total tally of 293 seats. The Congress-led INDIA bloc clinched 232 seats.