On a high after expanding its footprint in the Northeast in the recent round of Assembly elections, the BJP on Wednesday suffered a triple setback in the Lok Sabha bypolls in the politically crucial States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In U.P., the Samajwadi Party (SP) — backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)— wrested the Phulpur and Gorakhpur seats from the BJP.
In Araria, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) retained the seat in the first electoral face-off in the State after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dissolved the ''mahagathbandhan'' (grand alliance) government to join hands again with the BJP.
RJD, BJP retain Assembly seats in Bihar
The RJD and BJP retained their seats in the Assembly byelections in Jehanabad and Bhabua respectively.
The political understanding of the SP with the BSP paid off handsomely, delivering a major embarrassment to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The SP secured Phulpur by a healthy margin of 59,613 votes, while it breached the Chief Minister’s bastion by 20,000 votes, snatching the seat from the grip of the Gorakhnath Math for the first time since 1989. Mr. Adityanath himself held the seat from 1998 to 2017.
The turnaround looks even more remarkable as in 2014 the BJP had won both seats by over 3,00,000 votes, defeating both the SP and BSP put together by a long stretch. This time, the SP’s Nagendra Patel got more than 3,42,000 votes in Phulpur, defeating the BJP’s Kaushalendra Patel, who received 2,83,000 votes.
Rebel SP candidate Atiq Ahmed, who contested as an Independent, failed to make a difference despite getting over 48,000 votes, while the Congress’ Manish Mishra barely touched 19,000. The Congress forfeited its deposit in both seats, continuing its dismal show in the State.
Closely contested battle
In Gorakhpur, the more critical of the two seats, Pravin Nishad of the Nishad Party, who fought on an SP ticket, secured 4,56,000 votes, beating the BJP’s Upendra Shukla, who got 4,34,000 votes in a closely contested battle.
The Uttar Pradesh BJP office in Lucknow on March 14, 2018 after the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypoll results were announced.
It appears that not only has the BSP chief Mayawati’s decision to tacitly support the SP provided great benefits to the SP through a surge in Jatav Dalit votes, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav also seems to have successfully scripted a rainbow alliance of castes by roping in the OBC-based Nishad Party, which has considerable influence in pockets of eastern U.P., especially rural Gorakhpur.
Mr. Akhilesh Yadav alluded to the power of coming together of Bahujans, Dalits and OBCs.
Akhilesh thanks Mayawati
“First of all, I would like to thank BSP leader Mayawatiji. In this important fight, we received her party’s support,” said Mr. Mr. Akhilesh Yadav.
The SP also deputed Leader of the Opposition in the U.P. Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhury to call on Ms. Mayawati as the results became clear.
