BJP's Kapil Dev Agarwal won the by-elections in Muzaffarnagar.
The BJP has won only one-third of the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, with a margin of 7,000 votes. But the party is happy, since the seat is significant. Muzaffarnagar is the site of the communal riots of 2013, in which 60 people had died, hundreds were rendered homeless.
In the Assembly elections of 2012, the Samajwadi Party had won Muzaffarnagar. But post riots, in the 2014 general elections, the BJP not only bagged Muzaffarnagar, but also 71 of the 80 seats in an unprecedented performance.
Even during this election campaign, from poster to poster boys, riots were not far from the mind.
Local lawmaker Dr Sanjeev Balyan -- Minister of State in the Modi government and an accused in the 2013 riots -- was running the election campaign for Kapil Dev Agarwal, BJP's candidate. Suresh Rana, BJP lawmaker also accused in the riots, also campaigned during this election.
"What Muzaffarnagar does today, the state does tomorrow," said Dr Balyan, punching his fists in the air in victory. This is an indication of what will happen in 2017 when Uttar Pradesh will see assembly elections, he emphasised.
In the three-seat by-elections, the ruling Samajwadi Party lost two - Muzaffarnagar and Deoband -- retaining only Bikapur. The Congress won in Deoband, Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (party symbol handpump) failed to win a seat.
Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party doesn't contest by-polls and was an important factor missing from the calculations. But the party has started work on the ground with next year's elections in mind.
Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal, which suffered a humiliating defeat in its stronghold of western UP in 2014, is in hectic negotiations with JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to stitch a wider alliance for the UP elections on the lines of mahagathbadhan in Bihar.
With this by-poll result, the fight for the country's largest and most politically significant state has truly started.