Assembly bypolls: Cong-led UDF wins in Kerala, AAP registers wins in Punjab, Gujarat

The results to the five assembly bypolls, held on June 19 in Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat and West Bengal, threw up some surprises on Monday, 23 June.

In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF wrested the Nilambur seat from the ruling LDF with its candidate Aryadan Shoukath, son of the late Congress stalwart Aryadan Muhammed, defeating CPI(M) state secretariat member M. Swaraj, by over 11,000 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI) website. It is worth noting that this is the first time the LDF has lost a seat held by it to its political rivals.

It was good news for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat where its candidate Gopal Italia defeated BJP’s Kirit Patel by a margin of 17,554 votes. AAP also retained the Ludhiana West seat in Punjab with its candidate Sanjeev Arora defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu by a margin of 10,637 votes. The BJP candidate was in third position.

The ruling BJP in Gujarat retained the Kadi (SC reserved) seat with Rajendra Chavda defeating Ramesh Chavda (Congress) by a huge margin.

In West Bengal it was Alifa Ahmed of the Trinamool Congress who won the Kaliganj assembly seat by a landslide margin of 50,049 votes over her nearest BJP rival Ashish Ghosh.

The bypolls in the five constituencies were held on June 19. 

Soon after the results were declared, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people and said they were fed up with the BJP in Gujarat.

"Many congratulations to all of you on the splendid victory of Aam Aadmi Party in Visavadar seat of Gujarat and Ludhiana West seat of Punjab. Many congratulations and many thanks to the people of Gujarat and Punjab. In both the places, the victory margin has been almost double as compared to the last election,” Kejriwal said in a post on X in Hindi.

The former Delhi CM also clarified that he would not go to the Rajya Sabha. Arora, who is a sitting MP, will have to resign from the Rajya Sabha after his victory in Ludhiana West.

Asked whom would the party nominate as Arora’s replacement, Kejriwal said, “Many times I have been sent to the Rajya Sabha. I want to tell you I am not going to the Rajya Sabha. The political affairs committee of the party will decide whom to nominate.”