Congress Fails To Win Any Seat Across 4 States In Legislative Council Bypolls

The Congress failed to open its account in the by-elections held for 28 Legislative Council seats across four states. The party contested 12 of these seats, four of which it had won previously.

The biggest setback for the Congress came in Karnataka, where, despite being in power, it failed to secure a single seat.

Karnataka: 4 seats total, 4 contested, 0 won

The duo of DK Shivakumar and BK Hariprasad failed miserably in their first electoral test. Of these four seats, the Congress held one, which was snatched away by the JD(S), while the NDA achieved a clean sweep.

Bihar: 8 seats total, 5 contested, 0 won

After negotiations failed, the RJD and Congress went their separate ways. The Congress fielded candidates for five out of the eight seats. It had won one of these seats in the previous election, but this time, it did not appear as a serious contender for any of them. In the Darbhanga Teachers' constituency - a seat previously held by former state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha - Prashant Kishor's party secured a victory, marking its electoral debut.

Maharashtra: 5 seats total, 3 contested, 0 won

Out of the five seats, the Congress contested three, while Sharad Pawar's NCP contested two.

Two of the three seats contested by the Congress were previously held by the party, yet it failed to win any. In contrast, Sharad Pawar's party won both seats it contested. Ironically, while the NCP (SP) candidate for the Pune Graduates' constituency received over 100,000 votes, the Congress candidate for the Pune Teachers' constituency secured fewer than 10,000 votes.

Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena contested all the seats independently, outside of the alliance, and failed everywhere.

Uttar Pradesh: 11 seats total, 0 contested

Despite claiming an equal standing with the Samajwadi Party regarding seat-sharing for the upcoming UP Assembly elections, the Congress did not field a single candidate in the Legislative Council (MLC) elections.