Of power and prestige: What makes recently-held by-elections important

With all the attention on Bihar, people have forgotten about the 56 other Assembly seats for which by-polls have been held. We look at the states where by-elections took place - and their important

Madhya Pradesh – 28 seats

Advantage BJP; Congress requires a clean sweep          

In March 2020, 22 sitting MLAs of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading to the fall of the 15-month-old government. Three other MLAs followed Jyotiraditya Scindia when he quit the Congress and the Assembly. Three vacancies arose after the death of sitting MLAs.

The defections might not have mattered (indeed, they might not have happened at all) had the Kamal Nath government not been so precariously placed. In the 2018 Assembly election, the Congress