By-polls elections are not the determining criteria of the performance of the existing government and not at all the deciding factor of the fate of the ruling party in upcoming general elections. They are more of a pre-show that somewhere depicts the mood of voters before the major elections. From 2014 to 2018 there have been a total of 23 by-poll elections so far. While some of the parties emerged successful some had to see a big streak of losses. BJP has incurred the biggest loss in the by-polls and has won just 4 out of 23 seats.
However, the major losses were incurred in 2018. In February, the party lost its Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan’s Ajmer and Alwar to the Congress. It could not defeat the TMC in West Bengal’s Uluberia. In March, the party incurred successive losses in Uttar Pradesh when it lost Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats to Samajwadi Party and in the same month lost Araria by-poll in Bihar to the RJD. In May, the party had to accept defeat again when it could only retain Palghar seat of Maharastra and lost the Bhandara-Gondia and Kairana by-polls.
The other parties have fared well in comparison to BJP and have managed to retain their seats. The BJD, SP, Congress, NCP and Muslim League all have managed to retain their seats in the by-polls held after 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. But the best-performing party has been TMC. Four seats of Bengal which have undergone by-polls from 2014 to 2018 have retained their MPs from AITC.
PDP and NPF both of which are BJP allies are the only parties along with BJP which have failed to retain their MP seats in the by-polls. The biggest setback to BJP has been given by Congress which emerged victorious in 4 out of 6 constituencies previously held by BJP; the other two were won by NCP and RLD.
| BY-POLLS HELD AFTER 2014 | |||
| STATES | CONSTITUENCY | PREVIOUSLY HELD BY | LOST/WON/RETAINED BY |
| Maharashtra | Beed | BJP | BJP |
|
Odisha
| Kandhamal | BJD | BJD |
| Telangana | Medak | TRS | TRS |
| Warangal | TRS | TRS | |
| West Bengal | Bangaon | AITC | AITC |
| Coochbehar | AITC | AITC | |
| Tamluk | AITC | AITC | |
| Uluberia | AITC | AITC | |
| Uttar Pradesh | Gorakhpur | BJP | SP |
| Phulpur | BJP | SP | |
| Mainpuri | SP | SP | |
| Jammu & Kashmir | Srinagar | PDP | NC |
| Bihar | Araria | RJD | RJD |
| Gujarat | Vadodra | BJP | BJP |
| Madhya Pradesh | Ratlam | BJP | INC |
| Shahdol | BJP | BJP | |
| Assam | Lakhimpur | BJP | BJP |
| Meghalaya | Tura | NPP | NPP |
| Kerela | Malappuram | IUML | IUML |
| Rajasthan | Alwar | BJP | INC |
| Ajmer | BJP | INC | |
| Punjab | Gurdaspur | BJP | INC |
| Amritsar | INC | INC |