All eyes on Assembly polls, why tense by-election negotiations have also fractured Opposition alliances

Smarting from its disastrous showings in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress is also at the receiving end in West Bengal, where its ally CPI(M) announced candidates for the six bypoll seats after it “tired” of waiting for the grand old party to initiate talks.

The by-elections similarly seem to be reshaping political equations in the Opposition camp in Assam, where a surprise decision by the Congress to field a candidate in the Behali seat where it was supposed to back a joint candidate from its regional allies has resulted in the collapse of the unity alliance formed by the Opposition for the 2026 Assembly elections there. Notably, the Congress’s pick for Behali formally joined the party only on Thursday, after quitting the BJP last week.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress had even done some groundwork in anticipation of the by-elections, and started out bargaining for five of the 10 bypoll-bound seats (ultimately, the Election Commission did not announce bypolls for the Milkipur seat). Congress leaders hoped that realistically the SP would give the party at least three seats. But the regional party offered it only two – the difficult seats of Khair and Ghaziabad. The BJP won both these seats in the last two Assembly elections.

After the SP refused to relent, the Congress decided against accepting the offer. It indulged in some grandstanding arguing that the need of the hour was to defeat the BJP, and that it was offering support to the SP without any condition in all the seats. But the reality was that it held very little bargaining power after the Haryana results. The SP nursed a grudge against the Congress over it too, with the Congress having ignored its demands for a seat-sharing pact in Haryana and earlier in Madhya Pradesh.

In West Bengal, the Left-Congress alliance has collapsed. The Left Front announced candidates for the six bypoll seats without even consulting the Congress. The Left and the Congress had fought the recent Lok Sabha elections in an alliance. With no options left, the Congress announced its candidates for the six seats Tuesday. Five of the six seats where bypolls are being held are with the Trinamool Congress, which is under a lot of political pressure over the R G Kar rape and murder, and the handling of the case and the subsequent agitation. But the Opposition camp is a divided house now.

In Karnataka, NDA partners BJP and JD(S) suffered a hit with actor-turned-politician C P Yogeshwara quitting the BJP and joining the Congress Wednesday. Yogeshwara was upset after the BJP denied him the ticket for the Channapatna bypoll. On Thursday, he filed nomination papers as the Congress candidate in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

In Kerala too, the by-elections have led to some churn and saw a prominent defection from the Congress. Its social media head P Sarin left the party in protest against its decision to field Youth Congress chief Rahul Mamkoottathil as the candidate for the Palakkad Assembly bypoll. Sarin is now the Left-backed Independent candidate in Palakkad.