From local body polls to assembly elections: Here’s how India voted amid COVID-19 pandemic

Quite a few local body elections and assembly bypolls were held as well in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic not only brought our lives to a standstill, but also unleashed an unprecedented economic misery and delayed several elections too.

Amid the pandemic, two states went to polls in 2020 - Delhi and Bihar. While the National Capital went to polls in February when the pandemic had not yet been perceived as a major threat in the country, Bihar went to polls in October-November, after a declining trend in cases was observed.
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During this time, quite a few local body elections and assembly bypolls were held as well. More than 70 Rajya Sabha members were elected this year too. Let us look at how India voted in 2020, and which party won where.

Assembly elections:

Delhi was the first state to go to polls in 2020 for 70 assembly seats. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) retained power winning 62 seats, down from 67 seats in the previous Delhi Assembly elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s tally improved from three to eight, but the Congress failed to win even a single seat in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. The Grand Old Party secured less than five percent votes and 63 of its 66 candidates had to forfeit their deposits.
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Bihar elections for 243 assembly seats started in late October and ended in November 2020. The election was held in three phases and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won in the state. The NDA won 125 seats - three more than the magic number – and formed the government in Bihar. With this, the BJP, for the first time in 15 years, became the senior alliance partner in state, winning more seats than the Janata Dal United.Bihar Election 2020 Results: Full list of winners

The NDA’s rival – the Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, and the Left parties - won 110 seats. However, the RJD emerged the single-largest party with 75 seats.

Bypolls or bye-elections were held in several states this year, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, and Telangana. The bypolls were held to fill vacancies owing to defection or death of sitting legislators.

Madhya Pradesh bye-elections were the most keenly watched. Polls were held for 28 seats of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly after 25 Congress MLAs led by Jyotiraditya Scindia switched to the BJP. The MP bypolls ended in a change of regime with the saffron party coming to power.

Status quo was maintained in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls that were held for seven seats as the BJP retained its six seats and the Samajwadi Party retained power in one.

In the Gujarat bypolls, the Congress ended up losing all eight seats to the ruling BJP. The party also lost four seats to the BJP in the Manipur bye-elections, and one was lost to an independent candidate.

The BJP emerged victorious in the assembly bypolls held in November for Telangana’s Dubbaka seat also. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had won this seat by a huge majority in 2018.

In Haryana, the Congress retained power in the one seat that went to bypolls, while it grabbed the Marwahi seat from the Janata Congress Party in Chhattisgarh. In Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) won all three seats where bypolls were held.

Local body elections were held in Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, and Rajasthan this year. The TRS emerged victorious in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election 2020 with 56 wins, and the BJP managed to make deep inroads by winning 48. The Congress party won in two.

Elections to municipalities, panchayats, and corporations were held in Kerala in December. The results are yet to be announced as votes will be counted on December 16. The BJP has been trying desperately to make inroads in Kerala with an eye on the 2021 assembly elections. It has been actively wooing minority communities in the state – both Muslims and Christians – hoping their favour would secure them an eventual poll win.

The District Development Council (DDC) elections are currently being held in Jammu and Kashmir. The elections are being held in phases and this is the first time the Union territory went to polls since Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated and the state was bifurcated. Votes will be counted on December 22.

In Rajasthan, panchayat elections and urban local body elections were held in 2020. While the BJP won in the former, the Congress won in the latter by emerging victorious in 620 wards.

The results of the Goa zilla panchayat elections was announced on December 14 and the BJP won 32 of the 49 seats; The Congress could bag only four seats. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) won three seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) one and AAP one.

Rajya Sabha elections

As many as 74 Rajya Sabha members got elected in 2020 – several of them unopposed, including the 12 who got elected from Uttar Pradesh. The Rajya Sabha elections helped the NDA inch closer to the majority mark in the Upper House of Parliament, with the BJP increasing its tally by 12 members.