Bypoll results in 7 states: INDIA wins 6 seats, leads in 4; NDA bags 1, ahead in 1.

AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat won from Jalandhar West, while Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur won from the Dehra seat. In a boost for the Opposition, the INDIA bloc won at least six seats and was leading in four , while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged one seat as votes were counted for the bypolls in 13 assembly seats across seven states on Saturday, July 13. Among the 13 assembly seats, the Congress, which won 99 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, was leading in two seats of Uttarakhand. The party won Dehra assembly seat in Himachal Pradesh, where it had fielded chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur. Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc’s partner Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which fielded candidate Mohinder Bhagat from Punjab’s Jalandhar West, won the seat, defeating his nearest rival and BJP nominee Sheetal Angural by a margin of more than 37,000 votes. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) data, the Trinamool Congress, led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, has won three assembly seats including Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakhisn. The party had taken the lead over its rival in Maniktala assembly segment. The bypolls for these four assembly seats were held on July 10. Otherside, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Anniyur Siva was leading in Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi assembly constituency. In Himachal Pradesh, Congress candidates – chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Tahkur and Hardeep Singh Bawa – are in the lead in Dehra and Nalagarh, while BJP’s Ashish Sharma is ahead in Hamirpur. Kamlesh Thakur won against BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh in Dehra. Congress’ Pushpinder Verma was trailing by 1,545 votes against BJP’s Ashish Sharma in Hamirpur and Congress’ Hardeep Singh Bawa was leading by 4,137 votes against the BJP’s K L Thakur in Nalagarh, according to the website. In Rupauli seat of Bihar, independent candidate Shankar Singh was leading and his closest rival for the seat was Janata Dal (United) candidate Kaladhar Mandal. The Rupauli seat was held by Bima Bharti, who resigned from Janata Dal (United) and joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in March to contest the Lok Sabha election from Purnia parliamentary seat. However, she was defeated by an independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan. The Bharatiya Janata Party won Hamirpur seat of Himachal Pradesh and it was leading in Amarwara consituency of Madhya Pradesh. The bypolls are seen as an important test for the BJP, which won 240 seats, falling short of the 272 majority mark and needing support from allies in the NDA coalition to form a government. This contrasts sharply with its 303 and 282-seat victories in 2019 and 2014, respectively, where it secured a majority on its own. With support from key allies like N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which secured 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar respectively, along with other coalition partners, the NDA surpassed the halfway mark.