With its political future at stake after the drubbing in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party secured massive victories in Punjab’s Ludhiana West and Gujarat’s Visavadar bypolls. The Congress-led United Democratic Front won decisively in Kerala’s Nilambur. The BJP fielded candidates in all five bypolls but managed to win only one seat, Gujarat’s Kadi. The Trinamool Congress retained Kaliganj in West Bengal, which goes to the polls next year.

The AAP gave its all in the Ludhiana West bypoll. Senior leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Atishi campaigned extensively for Sanjeev Arora. Kejriwal personally oversaw the campaign, with the Punjab Assembly elections less than two years away. The bypoll was being seen as a litmus test for the AAP, which had kept a low profile since its defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.

The Nilambur bypoll became a prestige battle as the seat falls under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi. The Congress-led UDF fielded Aryadan Shoukath, who had contested the seat in 2016. He won by over 11,000 votes, defeating the ruling Left’s candidate M Swaraj Shoukath, son of veteran Congress leader Aryadan Mohammad, who had won the seat eight times. Aryadan secured 77,737 votes while Swaraj received 66,660 votes. The win gave a strong push to the Congress ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections and held symbolic value as Nilambur has traditionally been a Left stronghold.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra treated the contest as a matter of prestige and held a roadshow in the area ahead of the June 19 bypoll. The seat was vacated after PV Anvar, a Left-backed independent MLA, resigned following a fallout with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Anvar had won the seat in 2021 by just 2,700 votes and later joined the Trinamool Congress. The BJP fielded Advocate Mohan George in Nilambur.

In Ludhiana West, AAP’s Sanjeev Arora, a former Rajya Sabha MP and industrialist, retained the seat for the party with a margin of over 10,000 votes. Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu was the runner-up, followed by BJP’s Jiwan Gupta. The seat had fallen vacant after AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi died of a self-inflicted bullet injury in January. The Congress had held the seat six times since its creation in 1977, while Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) had won it twice. The BJP had never won the seat.

Arvind Kejriwal posted on X that the party won both seats with nearly double the margin compared to the previous elections. He said, “This shows that the people of Punjab are very happy with the work of our government and have voted even more in favour of us than in 2022. The people of Gujarat are now fed up with the BJP and see hope in the AAP.”

In Visavadar, AAP’s former state president Gopal Italia defeated former BJP district president Kirit Patel by a margin of over 17,000 votes. Italia secured 75,942 votes in a state long considered a BJP bastion. The BJP had not won the seat since 2007 and hoped to break an 18-year losing streak. Italia had risen to prominence during the 2015 Patidar agitation in Gujarat. The seat had remained vacant since 2023, when AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the BJP.

In Kadi, BJP’s Rajendra Chavda won the seat by over 39,000 votes. The seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates and located in Mehsana district, had fallen vacant in February after the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki. In the triangular contest, Congress fielded Ramesh Chavda and AAP fielded Jagdish Chavda. Ramesh Chavda had earlier won the seat in 2012.

In West Bengal’s Kaliganj constituency, which falls under Nadia district, Trinamool Congress’s Alifa Ahmed won by a margin of over 50,000 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of her father and the sitting Trinamool MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed in February. The BJP fielded Ashish Ghosh for the seat. The counting process was marred by the death of a teenage girl in a crude bomb blast in Nadia. The BJP alleged that bombs were hurled during the Trinamool’s victory procession.

Kaliganj, a predominantly rural constituency, has a Muslim voter population of around 54 percent. The bypoll served as a significant political showdown between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.