INDI Bloc clean sweeps in by-elections in 13 assembly seats

The Opposition INDIA alliance, which posed a strong challenge to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, has emerged victorious in the by-elections for 13 Assembly seats across seven states. The INDIA bloc has secured two seats and is leading in nine others.

In Punjab, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West seat by over 23,000 votes. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidates are leading in four seats, with BJP trailing in each constituency. Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife, Kamlesh Thakur, won the Dehra elections on her electoral debut. In Himachal Pradesh, Congress is leading in Nalagarh, while BJP’s Ashish Sharma is ahead in Hamirpur.

In Uttarakhand, Congress candidates are leading in both Badrinath and Manglaur seats. In Madhya Pradesh, Congress’s Dheeran Shah Invati has a lead of over 4,000 votes in the Amarwar seat. In Bihar, JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal is leading in Rupauli, and in Tamil Nadu, DMK’s Anniyur Siva is leading by over 10,000 votes in the Vikravandi assembly seat.

The vote counting for these 13 legislative assembly seats across seven states began on Saturday morning, following Wednesday’s voting. These by-elections are the first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP won 240 seats, falling 32 seats short of a majority. The NDA, however, crossed the halfway mark with a total of 293 seats. The Congress-led INDIA bloc secured 232 seats.