New Delhi: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) held on to their lead over other parties in their respective states by registering emphatic wins in the bypolls held on September 30. The TMC took decisive leads from all the three assembly constituencies – Bhabanipur, Shamsherganj and Jangipur – quite early on Sunday morning after counting began at 8 am. Similarly, the BJD held on to its stronghold Pipli and defeated the BJP, which finished second, by a significant margin. In the run-up to the bypolls to four assembly seats (three in West Bengal and one in Odisha), much of the discussions revolved around West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s candidature, despite the fact that all reports predicted an easy victory for her. Despite leading her party to one of its most comprehensive victories in the state assembly polls held earlier this year, Banerjee herself had lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram seat by a narrow margin. The BJP, which had emerged as the primary challenger to the TMC rule, could manage to win only 77 seats compared to the ruling party’s 211 in the 294-member assembly.Both the TMC and BJP had campaigned aggressively in Bhabanipur, leading to a respectable 57% polling in the urban constituency with a history of poor turnouts. During the campaign, TMC pitched itself as the primary challenger to the BJP, in what many observers believed as the party setting stage for Banerjee’s imminent national role. The seat was vacated by TMC’s senior leader Sohandeb Chattopahyay for Banerjee to contest. Elections were necessitated in the remaining two seats in Bengal because of a candidates’ untimely COVID-induced death. The buzz around Banerjee emerging as a notable face to lead a possible united opposition front in the 2024 parliamentary elections had begun ever since Banerjee assumed the chief ministerial office for the third consecutive time. Over the last few months, TMC has been making extraordinary attempts to expand its presence in different states, especially Goa, Tripura, and Assam. In the process, it has also successfully brought into its fold senior leaders like Sushmita Dev and Luizinho Feleiro from the Congress, and many sitting legislators from BJP.Sunday’s results would go on to cement TMC’s perception as an organisation with national ambitions. Banerjee sailed to an easy victory, defeating her BJP rival Priyanka Tibrewal by a record margin of 58,832 votes.“I have won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypolls with a margin of 58,832 votes and have registered the victory in every ward of the constituency,” Banerjee said while addressing her party workers in Kolkata, in a not-so-veiled attack on the BJP which hoped to get support from a substantial non-Bengali speaking population in the constituency. In Murshidabad’s Jangipur, TMC’s win was almost one-sided with its candidate Jakir Hossain leading its BJP rival Sujit Das by nearly one lakh votes. In Samserganj, TMC’s Amirul Islam had to face tough opposition from Congress’ Zaidur Rahaman. However, at the time of filing this report, Islam had taken a decisive lead of more than 26,000 votes, with the BJP contender set to finish with only around 5% of the vote share. In Odisha’s Pipli, where bypolls were necessitated by the death of BJD veteran Pradeep Maharathy, his son Rudrapratap was leading BJP’s Ashrit Pattnayak by more than 20,000 votes at the time of filing this report. With this victory, Naveen Patnaik’s dominance in state politics received yet another shot in the arm.Shot in the arm for Mamata BanerjeeConventionally, bypoll results favour the ruling party except for select instances. However, the Sunday results will surely have a greater impact in stimulating TMC’s plans to go national. Notably, Banerjee, known for her Bengali sub-nationalist political rhetoric, made significant attempts to reach out to various communities during the campaign, interacting with them in their language and advocating religious tolerance towards all communities and ethnicities. At the same time, her party workers were seen projecting her as the only leader who could defeat the BJP, while Banerjee in her speeches urged voters to vote for her if they wanted to rid the Centre from BJP’s rule. West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress candidate from Bhawanipore constituency Mamata Banerjee during her assembly by-election campaign. Photo: PTIBy firmly establishing its dominance over a fledgling BJP in the state, TMC is well-placed to concentrate its efforts on other states where it has been challenging BJP’s hegemony. Among the regional parties, TMC and Tamil Nadu-based Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by M.K.Stalin are making special efforts to mount an ideological opposition to the BJP nationally.Also read: Mamata Banerjee’s Calls for a United Opposition Against the BJP Brings Her to the National StageBoth Banerjee and Stalin haven’t hidden their national ambitions since they steered their parties to a win in their states but, more importantly, they have also been fiercely critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempts to privatise Public Sector Units (PSUs) as well as the growth of extremist Hindu majoritarian politics under BJP-led Centre.From time to time, they have pointed out the apparent decay of public institutions, rising hate crimes, and alleged legislative excesses. Both leaders have also reached out to other opposition parties and have been making efforts to forge a united opposition front ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections. The Sunday results may boost such a possibility.Although 31 assembly seats across India and three Lok Sabha constituencies are vacant, the Election Commission of India has been cautious about holding by-elections in view of the restrictions during the pandemic. While it had decided to hold bypolls in only four seats on September 30, earlier this week it announced polls in 30 assembly constituencies across 15 states and the remaining Lok Sabha seats.