The assembly elections to three states - Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya and bypolls to five states - Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jharkhand have thrown a mixed bag of results. While the NDA has retained Tripura and Nagaland, it has agreed to extend support to the NPP in Meghalaya. On the other hand, Congress has won bypolls from West Bengal's Sagardighi, Maharasthra's Kasba Peth and Tamil Nadu's Erode East seat. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tried to claim an impressive show by Congress using the bypoll wins and was trolled by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
"Today's Assembly Election Results: -INC wins Kasba Peth in Maharashtra after 33 years. -INC wins Sagardighi seat in West Bengal after 51 years. -INC up from 0 seats to 5 in Tripura. -5 seats in Meghalaya (Despite hijacking of 21 sitting MLAs). -Tamil Nadu By-Election INC," said Ramesh in a tweet.
Reacting to his tweet, Sarma said that Congress continues to live in denial despite election losses.
"One must appreciate Congress’s ability to live in denial by spinning narratives - converting a washout in three states into an achievement!" said Sarma.
One must appreciate Congress’s ability to live in denial by spinning narratives - converting a washout in three states into an achievement! https://t.co/EK7TmgZoZr
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) March 2, 2023
Noteworthy to mention that Congress joined hands with Left to contest Tripura polls but failed to dislodge the BJP-IPFT government. In fact, the newly-born political outfit Tipra Motha has managed to emerge as the principal opposition party in the state with 13 seats while the Congress won just 3 seats and Left 11.
In Nagaland, Congress drew a blank with just around three per cent votes.
In Maharashtra, the BJP failed to retain the Kasba Peth Assembly seat, its stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in the bypoll. The BJP was in power in the Kasba Peth constituency for 28 years. Girish Bapat, the current BJP MP from Pune, represented the seat five times till 2019.
The ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) retained the Erode East bypoll segment in Tamil Nadu with an emphatic win against the K Palaniswami-led AIADMK, prompting Chief Minister M K Stalin to bill it as an endorsement of his nearly two-year-old government's "Dravidian model" of governance.
