It's 4-3 to BJP ahead of Gujarat, Himachal polls; lessons for grand alliance and SP: Highlights of by-election results

The BJP won in four out of seven assembly constituencies in six states, retaining the three seats it held, in the by-election results declared on Sunday, while the TRS and RJD won one each after a stiff contest with the saffron party.

The bypoll results come as a boost for the BJP and K Chandrashekar Rao’s TRS (now BRS) who plans to take his party to the national arena. The close loss dashed BJP’s hopes to make inroads into TRS’ citadel. 

However, despite facing a defeat, the BJP will take heart from the fact that it gave a tough fight to the TRS. The poll results will also set the tone for the 2023 Telangana assembly elections in which the BJP is planning to dethrone KCR’s party. 

In Bihar, the BJP and RJD retained their respective seats of Gopalganj and Mokama. 

In Bihar, the RJD saw its victory margin fall in Mokama and it fell short of a win in party president Lalu Prasad's home district of Gopalganj, which the BJP retained, albeit by the skin of its teeth.

It was the first electoral test for the Nitish Kumar-led 'Mahagathbandhan' (RJD-JDU-Cong) government, formed less than three months ago after the JD(U) parted ways with the BJP.

RJD candidate Neelam Devi won in Mokama by more than 16,000 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after the disqualification of her husband MLA Anant Kumar Singh.

The BJP contested from the constituency for the first time as the saffron party had, on previous occasions, left the seat to its allies.

BJP's Kusum Devi, the wife of MLA Subhash Singh whose death had necessitated the by-election in Gopalganj, polled 70,032 votes, while RJD's Mohan Gupta got 68,243.

In Haryana, BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in Adampur by a margin of around 16,000 votes, maintaining the family's winning streak.

In Uttar Pradesh, BJP's Aman Giri won the Gola Gokarannath assembly bypoll, defeating his nearest rival and Samajwadi Party candidate Vinay Tiwari by over 34,000 votes.

With the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress keeping away, it was a direct contest between Aman Giri from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and Tiwari from the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP).

The outcome of the bypoll will not have much impact as the BJP and its allies enjoy an overwhelming majority in the 403-member assembly. But it was a test of strength between the rivals in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

For the BJP, the results are encouraging ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where it is looking to retain power while facing a two-sided challenge from the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. 

The BJP said the result of the November 3 by-election was a stamp of approval by people on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies as it retained Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, Dhamnagar in Odisha and Gopalganj in Bihar where it had fielded the kin of its party MLAs whose death necessitated the polls.