NEW DELHI: The Congress made impressive gains, bagging 10 of the 31 Assembly seats spread across seven states and wresting the lone Lok Sabha by-election from Ferozabad in Uttar Pradesh, where film star-turned-politician Raj Babbar trounced Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
All-India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s hard work has borne results for the Congress, which managed to get the opposition space in the Hindi-heartland state of Uttar Pradesh and also wrested the Lucknow (West) Assembly seat after 20 years from the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati’s prime ministerial ambitions were crushed in the general election in May this year by a poor performance, but she made a surprise comeback in the state.
The Assembly by-elections were held in Uttar Pradesh for 11 seats, in West Bengal for 10 seats, in Kerala for 3 seats and two seats each in Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, besides one seat in Chhattisgarh.
The CPM drew a blank in both the bastions of West Bengal and Kerala, signaling that the left front governments in these two red bastions may lose power in the next elections.
The Trinamool Congress of Indian Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress swept the polls in West Bengal, while the Congress won all the three Assembly bypolls in Kerala.
The Trinamool Congress repeated its Lok Sabha performance in West Bengal when it came out with flying colors in 5 of the 10 seats and was leading in two.
The sole consolation for the Left parties in West Bengal came from the victory of Forward Bloc in Goalpokhar, where it wrested the seat from Congress. The remaining seat went to an independent.
Upbeat over her party’s spectacular performance, Mamata Banerjee said, “It is a victory for democracy and peace. It is also a victory of Ma, Mati, Manush.”
The Congress similarly won one seat each in from the BJP-ruled states of Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and one seat in Rajasthan and both the seats in the north-eastern state of Assam.
