Of 23 Lok Sabha By-Elections Since 2014, BJP Has Won Just Four

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In contrast, the Congress has won five of these bypoll battles — more than any other party. The Trinamool Congress, however, has the best strike rate.

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Phulpur, and Bihar’s Araria became the latest casualties in BJP’s bad luck at bypolls when it comes to Lok Sabha seats. Since its historic win in 2014 General Elections, the party has managed to win just four out of 23 Lok Sabha bypolls.

In contrast, the Congress has won five of these bypoll battles — more than any other party. It managed to retain the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat and wrested the others from the BJP. The saffron party has won just four, the same as the Trinamool Congress.

Of the 23 Lok Sabha seats that witnessed bypolls since 2014, 10 were previously held by the BJP. The party has not added any new seats to its kitty, but has lost six. It has managed to hold on to just four seats. Two of BJP’s wins came in 2014, the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his historic mandate. The other two came in 2016.

In 2014, bypolls were held in five Lok Sabha seats. All of them were retained by the respective parties that won them in the General Elections. The BJP retained Maharashtra’s Beed and Gujarat’s Vadodara, which Modi had won and vacated in 2014. The BJD retained Kandhamal in Odisha, the Samajwadi Party retained UP’s Mainpuri and the TRS managed to hold on to the seat of Medak in Andhra Pradesh.

The following year, however, saw a slight reversal of sorts, with the BJP losing Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, which it had won in 2014, to the Congress. The TRS held the Warangal seat, while the Trinamool Congress held the Bangaon seat in West Bengal.

The BJP performed better in 2016, when it retained the Lakhimpur seat in Assam and the Shahdol seat in Madhya Pradesh. It, however, failed to wrest the Trinamool strongholds of Coochbehar and Tamluk in West Bengal.

In the Tura Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJP’s Meghalaya unit chose not to contest the polls and instead supported the NPP, which won the election.

Last year was again not a good one. The party lost two Lok Sabha bypolls in Punjab. In Amritsar, the Congress managed to retain the seat, while in Gudaspur, the Grand Old Party wrested a seat that the BJP had won four times. In Kerala, too, the party lost the Malappuram Lok Sabha bypoll, and in Srinagar, its ally PDP lost its seat to National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah.

In 2018, of the six seats which previously had BJP MPs, four were lost in the last two months. In February, the party lost the Lok Sabha by-elections in Rajasthan’s Ajmer and Alwar, both of which had BJP lawmakers earlier, to the Congress. It also failed to defeat the Trinamool in West Bengal’s Uluberia. The losses in Gorakhpur and Phulpur on Wednesday took the number of Lok Sabha seats the BJP has ceded to six. The party also lost the Araria bypoll in Bihar to the RJD.

Other parties, however, have fared better at retaining their respective seats. The BJD, Samajwadi Party, Congress, NPP and IUML each saw one of its seat fall vacant. All five parties managed to retain them.

The TRS had two of its seats go to bypolls and held both.

The best strike rate of all, however, belonged to the Trinamool Congress. Four seats from West Bengal, all of which previously had MPs from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party, went to polls between 2014 and 2018. The party retained all four.

Lok Sabha Bypoll Results Since 2014

2014

Beed, Maharashtra

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: BJP

Kandhamal, Odisha

Party that won originally: BJD

Party that won in bypoll: BJD

Medak, Telangana

Party that won originally: TRS

Party that won in bypoll: TRS

Vadodara, Gujarat