Results of the bypolls to four Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Goa showed the ruling parties of these States triumphing.
The Nandyal Assembly bypoll was necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy, a YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) candidate who had, after the Assembly polls, switched to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The TDP gave the ticket to late Mr. Reddy’s nephew Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy who scored an emphatic win over his YSRCP rival Silpa Mohan Reddy by a comfortable margin of 27, 466 votes.
In Delhi, the ruling AAP registered a significant victory in Bawana, with its candidate Ram Chander winning by over 24,000 votes in a seat that had been won by AAP in 2015 but where a bypoll was necessitated when AAP MLA Ved Parkash defected to the BJP. Mr. Prakash was the BJP’s candidate but could not repeat his 2015 feat.
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In Goa, CM Manohar Parrikar registered a comfortable win, retaining Panaji for the BJP. He trounced Girish Chodankar of the Congress by 4,803 votes. The party wrested Valpoi from the Congress, with Vishwajit Rane defeating Roy Naik.
The political sub-text in each of the four bypoll results out on Monday is being seen as a bellwether for the 2019 general elections, especially in the case of Andhra Pradesh.
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Heavy campaigning was held in Nandyal, led by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for the TDP and Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSRCP. Strong rhetoric employed in the campaign even resulted in the Election Commission permitting the filing of an FIR against Mr. Reddy for his utterances.
Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said his party’s victory showed that voters “had rejected the vicious and speech politics” that marred the campaign.
It was a significant victory for Mr. Naidu as Nandyal was considered a YSRCP stronghold, and both parties had made it a prestige issue. The victory was made sweeter for Mr. Naidu by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warm tweet, affirming the former’s spot as a valued ally in the NDA. “Congrtulations to Bhuma Bhramananda Reddy Garu and our valued NDA ally, TDP for the big victory in the Nandyal by-poll,” Mr. Modi tweeted.
Kejriwal jubilant
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the AAP victory an endorsement of the policies of the State government.
“I thank the people of Bawana for endorsing the AAP’s clean politics and the work of the State government in the past two-and-a-half years,” he said. AAP leaders heaved a sigh of relief that the bypoll had reversed some of the low morale the party was suffering after defeats in the Punjab and Goa polls and the MCD polls early this year.
BJP leaders admitted that fielding Ved Prakash did not turn out to be a wise strategy. “There appeared to be anti-incumbency against the candidate and our own karyakartas were not keen to support him,” said a senior general secretary of the BJP.
The Congress that led in the early rounds had to satisfy itself with the third place but Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken, pointing to a silver lining in the dismal performance, said the party had improved its vote percentage from 7.8% in 2015 to 25%.
After the two wins, the BJP is now at 14 MLAs in the 40-member Goa Assembly, with the Congress holding 16 seats.