As the results of the 10 Assembly byelections were announced on Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)performed to expectations, winning five seats, but the Aam Aadmi Party fared worse than its worst fears, losing its deposit in Delhi. The Congress, despite being nowhere close to the BJP, exceeded its own expectations by winning three seats. The All-India Trinamool Congr- ess and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won one seat each.
If the results are indicative of a trend, the BJP is rising in Delhi and making inroads in Bengal — where it was far ahead of the Left and the Congress in the one seat that went to polls — and the Congress is back in the reckoning in Delhi and is still powerful in Karnataka.
BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao saw this as confirming the “overwhelming, positive incumbency for the Modi government at the Centre”.
Cong. up in Delhi
Congress communications department chief Randeep Surjewala told The Hindu , “We thank the voters and congratulate Congress leaders and voters. Our vote in Delhi on this seat went up from 13% to 33.2%.”
The AAP suffered a serious jolt in Delhi, losing its security deposit in Rajouri Garden, a seat which its candidate Jarnail Singh had won last time.
The BJP maintains its lead in Assam and can find some cheer in the Rajasthan result, as the State, known for giving the BJP and Congress alternate chances, goes to the polls next year.
In Karnataka — a State where the BJP was looking to wrest seats from the Congress this time — the Congress won in both the constituencies, thus showing it may be no push-over in the southern State in the Assembly elections next year.
The All-India Trinamool Congress won the sole Bengal seat of Kanthi Dakshin with a margin of 42,526 votes — with the BJP emerging as runner-up — and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won the sole Jharkhand seat of Littipara, considered its stronghold, defeating the BJP by 12,900 votes.
The BJP retained Bhoranj in Himachal Pradesh with a margin of 8,290 votes; Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh by 25476 votes; Dholpur in Rajasthan by 38,673 votes and Dhemaji in Assam by 9,285 votes, while wresting Rajouri Garden in Delhi from the AAP by a margin of 14,652 votes.
It, however, lost Ater in MP to the Congress by a narrow margin of 857 votes.
Ater apart, the Congress won both the seats that went to polls in Karnataka — Nanjangud by 21,334 votes and Gundlupet by 10,877 votes. The BJP was runners-up in both. The Congress had won both seats last time, defeating JD (S) by about 9,000 votes in the first and KJP by about 7,000 votes in the second in the last assembly polls.
“The victory in Ater, where EVMs were seen voting for the BJP, is sweet. And we are going strong in Karnataka,” Mr. Surjewala said.
In Delhi, the BJP — which was reduced to three seats out of 70 in the AAP wave last time — got 52% votes, followed by Congress with 33.2%. The AAP was down to 13% votes, suggesting a steep dip in its political fortunes.
BJP share rises
In West Bengal, while AITMC is secure in its lead, the BJP may be surging ahead of the Left and Congress. While the AITMC secured 55.9-% votes, the BJP at 31% was far ahead of the CPI with 10.2% and the Congress at 1.3%.
The BJP, in fact, registered a 22 percentage point increase in vote-share in this seat. In 2016, it was third here with 8.75% vote share, with the Left-Congress alliance bagging 34%of the votes.
