Chandigarh, June 24 -- The Ludhiana West bypoll result was a mixed bag for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it secured third place with a vote share of 22.54%, a slight dip from the 23.95% it got in the 2022 assembly elections.

Despite a marginal dip in support, party leaders said that they fought the election "against all odds," considering they had just 13 days of campaigning.

Jiwan Gupta, the party's candidate, was nominated only one day before the nomination deadline, and the party faced tough challenges following the death of Vijay Rupani, the state BJP in-charge, in the Ahmedabad plane crash just ahead of the bypoll. Despite this, BJP leaders claimed their biggest achievement was the party's unity during the campaign.

"Had we ...