Winning, differently: On the by-election results in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

The by-election results in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, declared on Friday, held few surprises. Barely five months after the April Assembly elections, the ruling party in each State/UT won all five bypolls. What varied was the scale of victory. In West Bengal, the BJP retained Nandigram and wrested Rejinagar , with strong vote shares of 76% and 63%. In Puducherry, the ruling All India N.R. Congress also registered an emphatic win — 61% of the votes — in Thattanchavady. Nandigram and Thattanchavady were vacated by the Chief Ministers, which partly explains the strong wins. But the contests in Tamil Nadu were closer. Dharapuram and Madurantakam fell vacant after their AIADMK MLAs resigned and defected to the ruling TVK , which renominated them. Both won their seats back with 37% and 40% of the vote, respectively, leading the DMK rival candidates by about eight percentage points.