Bypoll election results: AAP retains 2 seats in Gujarat, Punjab; BJP 1 in Gujarat, TMC in Bengal

NEW DELHI: AAP won two, while BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress picked up one each in assembly bypolls to five seats across Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala and Bengal. Voting was held on June 19, with results declared Monday.

In Gujarat, AAP's Gopal Italia clinched Visavadar seat in Junagadh by 17,554 votes, defeating BJP's Kirit Patel. Italia, a former state unit president, secured 75,942 votes as BJP failed to break an 18-year losing streak in the constituency.

BJP retained the SC-reserved Kadi seat in Mehsana, where Rajendra Chavda trounced Congress's Ramesh Chavda by 39,452 votes. BJP now holds 162 seats in Gujarat's 182-member assembly. Congress state chief Shaktisinh Gohil stepped down, accepting responsibility for the party's poor performance in both seats.

The contest followed the death of BJP MLA Karshan Solanki in Feb. Visavadar had fallen vacant in Dec 2023 after AAP's Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined BJP. Bypolls were delayed as Bhayani's election was under judicial scrutiny, until Congress's Harshad Ribadiya - who had filed the case in high court - joined BJP and withdrew his petition this year.

Congress last held Visavadar in 2017 under Ribadiya, who lost to Bhayani in 2022. BJP last won the seat in 2007 through Kanu Bhalala. Former CM Keshubhai Patel captured it in 2012 on a Gujarat Parivartan Party ticket.

In Punjab's Ludhiana West, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora won by 10,637 votes. The seat fell vacant after AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi died in Jan. Congress's Bharat Bhushan Ashu got 24,542 votes, BJP's Jiwan Gupta 20,323. Ashu, a two-time MLA and former cabinet minister, resigned as working president of the party's state unit, saying: "I, and not the Congress party, contested the election. So, I must take the responsibility of defeat."

Calling the twin wins "a major boost" ahead of the 2027 state elections in Gujarat and Punjab, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said: "Both Congress and BJP contested the elections together... But people rejected them in both places." He dismissed speculation about replacing Arora in Rajya Sabha. "I am not going to RS. The party's political affairs panel will decide whom to nominate."

The name of senior party member Manish Sisodia is doing the rounds as Arora's replacement, with another senior member, Satyendar Jain (co-incharge, Punjab), also in the reckoning. There is also talk of the party going for a party member from Punjab as it may want Sisodia to focus on his job as in-charge of Punjab - the only state where AAP is in office.

TMC retained Kaliganj in Bengal, where Alifa Ahmed defeated BJP's Ashish Ghosh by over 50,000 votes. Daughter of the late legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed, whose death in Feb prompted the bypolls, the 38-year-old engineer left her IT job in Kolkata to contest. Congress, backed by the Left Front, finished third but increased its vote share to 28,348 - around 3,000 more than in 2021. BJP's vote count dropped to 52,710.

In Kerala, Congress wrested Nilambur from CPM in a major win before the 2026 assembly polls. Aryadan Shoukath defeated CPM's M Swaraj by 11,077 votes. Independent PV Anvar, once a Left ally and Trinamool's Kerala convenor, took nearly 20,000 votes, denting CPM's prospects. BJP polled around 8,000 votes, consistent with past performances.

Shoukath reclaimed father Aryadan Mohammed's former stronghold after nine years. Anvar had won Nilambur in 2021 as a CPM-backed independent but resigned earlier this year after falling out with CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The result marks first time Congress-led UDF has flipped a sitting LDF seat since current Left govt took office. CPM's M Swaraj has now lost twice in a row after a 2021 defeat in Thripunithara.

(Inputs from Kolkata, Gandhinagar, Ludhiana, and Kozhikode)