Voters in By-Poll Assembly Elections After Parliament Elections 2024 Favour Respective Ruling Parties in the State

After the Parliament Elections of 2024, the recent by-poll Assembly results clearly indicate that voters have favoured the ruling party in most of the states where by-elections were held.

In the Jalandhar West Constituency by-poll, the Aam Aadmi Party retained its seat with the victory of their candidate, Mohinder Bhagat. He is the son of Bhagat Chuni Lal, who had won this seat three times and served as a Cabinet Minister in the Parkash Singh Badal ministry. Interestingly, in the 2022 Assembly Elections, Mohinder Bhagat contested on a BJP ticket and was defeated by Sheetal Angural from the Aam Aadmi Party. Before the Parliament Elections, Sheetal Angural joined the BJP and resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party. The Speaker accepted Sheetal Angural's resignation, paving the way for a midterm poll in the Jalandhar West Constituency. This time, Mohinder Bhagat contested on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket, and Sheetal Angural ran for the BJP. BJP candidate Sheetal Angural lost to AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat by a huge margin of more than 37,000 votes. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, his wife, relatives, and various Aam Aadmi Party ministers, MLAs, and board chairmen campaigned for the Aam Aadmi Party. This victory for Mohinder Bhagat will boost the party's morale, giving them confidence for the upcoming Assembly by-elections in Punjab. Aam Aadmi Party leaders believe the masses have endorsed the successful policies of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann in Punjab.

On 12th July 2024, the Punjab BJP State Working Committee met in Ludhiana, attended by senior national leaders, including Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chug, BJP National Secretary Dr. Narinder Singh Rana, Punjab BJP Chief Sunil Kumar Jakhar, and former Punjab BJP Presidents Manoranjan Kalia, Avinash Rai Khanna, Shwait Malik, and Ashwani Sharma. A large number of party workers from Punjab also attended. BJP leaders applauded the increase in vote percentage in the 2024 Parliament Elections. They noted that the party contested all 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab, securing over 18% of the vote share. BJP leaders are enthusiastic about their gains in the parliamentary elections and are planning for the upcoming four by-elections in Punjab.

Interestingly, in the 2024 Parliament Elections, Congress had an edge over BJP in the Jalandhar West Constituency and won with a thin majority. Charanjit Singh Channi of Congress was the winner, with BJP in second place and AAP in third. Despite senior Congress leaders campaigning in the constituency, they stood at third position in the Assembly by-election. In Himachal Pradesh, Congress won two assembly seats while BJP won one. In Uttarakhand, Congress won both seats. BJP won one seat in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly by-election. In West Bengal, TMC won four seats. In Bihar, one independent candidate won, and in Tamil Nadu, the INDIA Alliance won one seat.

In my opinion, Assembly Elections often favour the ruling party of the state, and the results of Assembly Elections rarely reflect national politics.

Authored by:  
Rajat Kumar Mohindru  
Journalist,  
Jalandhar City.