Bypoll results: Huge setback for BJP; Oppn scores 11/14
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW/ MUMBAI/PATNA: In a massive setback to the ruling BJP, opposition parties on Thursday emerged victorious in 11 bypolls, limiting the saffron party and its allies to just three, out of four Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats across 11 states - boosting nonbjp unity in run-up to the 2019 general elections.
With prestige at stake in every single bypoll, the BJP lost the high-profile Kairana Lok Sabha seat in politically significant Uttar Pradesh to a united Opposition after a communally-charged election campaign, while there was a similar result in Bhandaragondiya Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra.
However, the BJP retained another Lok Sabha seat from Maharashtra, Palghar, where it had faced a challenge from its ally Shiv Sena.
The fourth Lok Sabha seat, Nagaland, for which bypoll was held earlier this week appeared to be going in favour of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), a BJP ally in the northeastern state.
While the Lok Sabha bypoll results appeared equally divided at 2-2 between the Bjp-plus-allies and the opposition parties, figures for the 10 assembly bypolls came as a massive setback for the ruling party which could manage just one (in Uttarakhand), while Congress bagged three (in Meghalaya, Karnataka and Punjab’s Shahkot) and others got six – JMM got two in Jharkhand, while CPI (M), SP, RJD and Trinamool one each in Kerala, UP, Bihar and West Bengal, respectively.
The results appeared more slanted against the BJP after taking into account the parties that had won these seats before bypolls were necessitated.
Similarly, in 10 assembly seats, the BJP and its allies failed to retain seats like Noorpur in UP and Shahkot in Punjab, while the opposition parties such as Congress, CPI (M), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Trinamool kept their respective seats.
The BJP retained Tharali assembly seat in Uttarakhand, but Samajwadi Party snatched Noorpur in neighbouring UP from the saffron party.
In Bihar, opposition RJD won Jokihat assembly seat by defeating BJP’S ally JD(U) by a considerable margin.
In Maharashtra, the BJP retained Palghar but tasted defeat in the Bhandara-gondiya Lok Sabha constituency, which the BJP had won in the 2014 elections.
The Congress has won one assembly seat in Maharashtra without any contest after all other parties withdrew their candidates.
Punjab’s ruling Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi wrested the Shahkot assembly seat from the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Trinamool’s Dulal Das won Maheshtala assembly bypoll in West Bengal, defeating BJP’S Sujit Kumar Ghosh by 62,827 votes.
BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao highlighted how the Modi factor has helped the party win a spate of assembly elections in states, but in bypolls people are driven by local issues, castes and candidates, knowing well that results will not have any impact on governments in either at the Centre or states. Kerala’s ruling CPI(M)LED LDF’S Saji Cheriyan also won the Chengannur Assembly bypoll by a considerable margin.
JMM retained both Silli and Gomia assembly seats in Jharkhand.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said people are disenchanted and observed that regional parties are powerful now.
Worryingly for the BJP, a string of defeats in bypolls held for several Parliamentary seats this year has seen the ruling party slip perilously close to the halfway mark in Lok Sabha.