Opposition Comes Out On Top In Key Polls

The Opposition has come out on top, though by a very narrow margin, in what was being seen as a major test for it after the formation of the INDIA alliance. Parties that are members of the INDIA bloc have won in four of the seven state Assembly seats where bypolls were held on Tuesday. While BJP candidates have been elected from the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura and Bageswhar in Uttarakhand, the Opposition bloc won in Uttar Pradesh's Ghosi, Jharkhand's Dumri, Kerala's Puthuppally and Bengal's Dhupguri. East UP's Ghosi was a test case for the INDIA alliance - the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties supported the Samajwadi Party candidate who won by a big margin.