It was a bittersweet day for the Bharatiya Janata Party as the results of the bypolls held in 29 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats were out on Tuesday, 2 November.
The saffron party and its allies made a clean sweep in the northeast, winning all nine seats, which went to poll in Assam, Mizoram, and Meghalaya and won the Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa. But it was the surprise blow by the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, which became a major setback for the BJP.
In the BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh, the GOP wrested the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and the Assembly seats of Jubbal. It also retained the Arki and Fatehpur Assembly seats. With the state going to polls next year, the loss is significant since it has now triggered the speculation whether the BJP will replace the incumbent CM Jairam Thakur.