By-election campaign for seven seats across six states comes to an end, and India is getting ready for its first confrontation with the BJP

On Sunday, the byelection campaign for seven assembly seats in six states came to a conclusion. Tuesday is the planned day for the election.

The byelections are crucial since this is the first time the opposition coalition INDIA and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are going head-to-head. With the intention of presenting a unified front against the BJP in the general election of 2024 via joint candidates to consolidate all the non-BJP votes, the 28 opposition parties have come together under the coalition name INDIA.

In Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand, by-elections are being held.

India and the BJP will square off in UP and Jharkhand. In Kerala, a showdown between Pinarayi Vijayan’s Left Development Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is planned, while in West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CPI (M) are engaged in a race to the top, opposition unity is emphasized.

The following seats will be up for by-election:

Dumri, in Jharkhand
Puthupally (Kerala), 2.
Third, Boxanagar (Tripura)
Dhanpur (Tripura), 4.
5. West Bengal’s Dhupguri
Ghosi, from Uttar Pradesh
Bageshwar, Uttarakhand

The deaths of five MLAs forced the holding of byelections: Jagarnath Mahto in Dumri; Oommen Chandy in Puthupally; Samsul Haque in Boxanagar; Bishnu Pada Ray in Dhupguri; and Chandan Ram Das in Bageshwar. The resignations of Pratima Bhoumik and Dara Singh Chauhan, respectively, have forced the need for by-elections in Dhanpur and Ghosi.

Ghosi by-elections in Uttar Pradesh
Along with by-elections in other states, the assembly by-elections in Ghosi in the Mau district will take place on Tuesday. The BJP’s Dara Singh Chauhan and the SP’s Sudhakar Singh are the candidates in the general election.

As he shifted from the SP to the BJP, Chauhan had to resign as an MLA. The resignation made the by-elections necessary.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is headed by the BJP, and the opposition alliance INDIA square battle in the Ghosi byelections.

The BJP-led NDA and India both depend on the results of the elections. Akhilesh Yadav’s standing in the coalition about the state that elects the 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha would increase if the SP candidate were to win, as the BJP is trying to project strength.

It will also provide the governing party with a chance to demonstrate its control over Uttar Pradesh and demonstrate the value of the INDIA coalition. Akhilesh Yadav’s status and influence within the INDIA alliance will be strengthened by a victory for the SP, which will also solidify his candidacy to head the coalition in the politically significant state that elects 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, according to PTI.

Elections for Dumri in Jharkhand
The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), a member of the NDA, and the governing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a constituent of INDIA, are vying for the Dumri assembly seat in Jharkhand. The goal of both teams is to achieve a moral triumph.

According to the PTI, “the seat has turned out to be a prestigious one for both alliances amid Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) claiming that the INDIA bloc will begin its victory journey from Dumri, while the NDA exuded confidence that it is all set to snatch the seat from JMM.”

The JMM has nominated his wife Bebi Devi against AJSU’s Yashoda Devi in an effort to capitalize on the memory of Jagarnath Mahto, whose passing prompted the bypolls.

Leading figures from both parties have endorsed their candidates, including CM Hemant Soren.

“Top officials of the governing coalition, including JMM, Congress, and RJD, camped in the constituency since the start of the campaign on August 21 in an effort to hold onto the seat. Chief Minister Hemant Soren urged the populace to support the INDIA candidate since doing so would be a fitting homage to Mahto…Sudesh Mahto, the leader of the AJSU Party, has been camped out in the district to win over voters. The present JMM-led administration is allegedly failing in a number of ways, including corruption and worsening peace and order, according to the BJP and AJSU Party, according to PTI.

Elections in West Bengal’s Dhupguri pit TMC against CPI (M).
The CPI (M) and TMC, both members of the opposition coalition INDIA, are competing against one another in the West Bengal district of Dhupguri.

Due to the participation of the BJP, the election is now a triangular one. For the byelections, the Congress and the CPI (M) are in an alliance.

One of the major internal contradictions of the INDIA bloc is shown by the TMC-CPI (M) dispute. The member parties compete against one another in a number of states, including Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, and others. The leaders, however, have made an effort to distinguish between national elections and national political equations from assembly elections and state political equations.

The impending by-election in the Dhupguri assembly sector will be a significant test for the INDIA opposition coalition as its key members, the TMC and Congress-CPI(M) alliance, compete against one another to seize the rural seat in North Bengal from the BJP.The byelection on September 5 will serve as a test for all three political parties, with the BJP hoping to stop the decline in its vote share and hold onto the seat, the TMC hoping to seize the assembly district with a large tribal population, and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to reclaim its historical seat, according to PTI.

Sujan Chakraborty, a leader of the CPI(M), said that the struggle in Dhupguri, a seat that had been a stronghold of the Left from 1977 to 2011, is no exception to the war being waged throughout Bengal against both the sectarian BJP and the mismanagement of the TMC. The passing of BJP MLA Bishu Pada Ray, who was a sitting member, forced the byelections.

Kerala’s UDF against LDF
The Puthuppally assembly seat in Kerala is being contested by the incumbent LDF and the Congress-led UDF coalition, both members of the INDIA bloc, after the passing of Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy.

The campaign has seen cyberattacks on the relatives of candidates, road shows by important political figures, and challenges and counter-challenges from the candidates. Even Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family came under fire from the opposition UDF and BJP during the campaign, with both accusing him and his daughter of corruption in the aftermath of some suspected financial transactions between her business and a Kochi-based mining company,” according to PTI.

Uttarakhand by-elections in Bageshwar
In the byelections for Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, the longtime foes BJP and Congress are expected to engage in a bipolar struggle.

Parvati Das, the late Chandan Ram Das’s widow, ran for office in the BJP, while Basant Kumar, a former AAP member who switched parties, ran for office in the Congress.

Leading figures from the state branches of both parties have endorsed the candidates.

Along with the party candidate and BJP MP from Almora, Dhami attended roadshows in Garud and Bageshwar on Saturday. He expressed confidence that the lotus, the BJP’s electoral emblem, would blossom once again in Baba Bagnath’s (Shiva) homeland.In order to support the party candidate Basant Kumar, heavyweights from the Congress, including Harish Rawat, PCC President Karan Mahara, and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Yashpal Arya, have also been camped out in Bageshwar for the last several days, according to PTI.

Despite the fact that the race is divided, the Samajwadi Party also put up a candidate as a sign of its incapacity to oppose the BJP with a single united candidate.

Elections in Tripura
Elections for the Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly seats are planned in Tripura. Tipra Motha and the Congress chose not to participate in the election, setting up a bipolar struggle between the BJP and CPI (M).

According to the PTI, “To reach out to voters in both seats, the BJP organized massive rallies, road shows, motorcycle rallies, and door-to-door campaigning…Manik Sarkar, a member of the CPI(M) politburo, and Jitendra Chaudhury, the party’s state secretary, joined by other officials, ran a one-on-one campaign for the party’s candidates, although Tipra Motha, the major opposition, did not.

In the majority-minority Boxanagar seat, the BJP’s Tafajjal Hussain will compete against the CPI(M)’s Mizan Hussain, while the previous Communist stronghold of Dhanpur will see a straight contest between the BJP’s Bindu Debnath and the CPI(M)’s Kaushik Debnath.