The results of the by-elections in 18 Assembly constituencies in Bihar, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, three months after the NDA swept the general elections, gave the BJP a jolt while bringing cheer to the Opposition camp.
The Congress and its allies won 10 seats and the BJP and its allies the remaining eight.
The Congress that won five seats on its own was cautious and described its victory as a “qualitative rather than a quantitative” change. The big story, however, was the success of the “Grand Alliance” in Bihar, where the RJD (3), the JD(U) (2) and the Congress (1) pooled their resources and won six of the 10 seats, losing two by margins as small as 700 and 400 votes. After the BJP-led combine won 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar earlier this year, it had expected to replicate its performance.
In Karnataka, the Congress wrested Bellary — a seat that became synonymous with the mining mafia — from the BJP and retained Chikkodi-Sadalga. BJP vice-president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Raghavendra squeaked through in Shikaripur.
In Punjab, the Congress lost Talwandi Sabo to the SAD but retained the Patiala seat. In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress wrested Bahoriband from the BJP, while the BJP won the Vijayraghavgarh and Agar seats.
The results are also a morale booster for the Opposition camp ahead of Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.
Morale-booster for Opposition
With the “grand alliance” of the Congress, the RJD and the JD(U) putting up an excellent show in the Bihar by-elections, what remains to be seen is whether they will contest the Assembly election in 2015 together.
The results are a morale booster to the Opposition camp ahead of the Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand Assembly elections this year.
Two key issues will have to be resolved ahead of the Bihar election — which party of the grand alliance will field a chief ministerial candidate and whether the Congress leadership will accept that a coalition is the only way forward for the party.
Emboldened by the alliance’s showing, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar said on Monday that the voters had expressed their “displeasure” with the Narendra Modi government. He suggested that the alliance be broadened with the Left parties to check the BJP’s “communal agenda.”
The two seats that the combine narrowly lost — Narkatiaganj and Banka — were represented by Muslim candidates, a sign that the Hindu consolidation seen during the general election is still to fade.
Welcoming the by-election result, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said, “The BJP’s efforts to create a ‘Modi wave’ again have failed. Today’s results are in line with what we have been seeing. We lost all five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, but immediately thereafter, won three Assembly seats in the by-elections. We control nine of the 11 districts in the State as nine of our candidates became zilla parishad chairmen through direct elections.”
In Karnataka, the Congress wrested Bellary Rural, a seat that is synonymous with the mining mafia, from the BJP and retained Chikkodi Sadalga. BJP vice-president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y Raghavendra won the Shikaripura seat, earlier held by his father, by just 6,430 votes.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress wrested Bahoriband from the BJP, while the BJP won Vijayraghavgarh that was earlier held by the Congress. This happened after the sitting Congress MLA joined the BJP and contested the election. The third seat, Agar, was retained by the BJP.
In Punjab, the Congress lost Talwandi Sabo to the Shiromani Akali Dal and retained Patiala Urban. Former Union Minister Preneet Kaur, who lost from the Patiala Lok Sabha constituency, won from Patiala Urban Assembly seat.
