NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government Monday received a rude shock with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faring poorly in the assembly by-elections within three months of its stupendous victory in the general elections.
The party failed to retain four seats and managed to win just seven of the 18 seats, while its ally Shiromani Akali Dal won one in Punjab. By-elections were held on August 21 to fill up vacancies in four states.
By-elections rarely raise so much expectations. However, it was viewed as a reality test for the Modi government which completes three months in power Tuesday as the BJP rode the ‘Modi wave’ to come to power with a thumping victory.
It was also a reality test for a fledgling anti-BJP coalition which may see several regional parties joining hands in future. Friends turned foes Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav came together after fighting each other for two decades in Bihar to halt giant strides the BJP had made in Bihar. They were joined by the Congress party. The grand alliance won six of the 10 seats in the state while the BJP managed just four.
Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won three seats, Nitish’s Janata Dal-United two and the Congress party one. The by-poll in Bihar was termed as semi-finals as the state is due to elect its new legislative assembly next year.
The BJP, along with its allies, had stunned its rivals by winning 31 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar in May general elections.
What is going to hurt the BJP the most is that its popularity chart has started coming down and the party tasted defeats in some of its bastions like Bhagalpur in Bihar and Bellary rural in Karnataka, while managing to retain Karnataka’s Shikaripura seat by a modest margin.
In the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh the party won two of the three seats and in Punjab the Congress party and the Akalis won one seat each.
The grand alliance in Bihar is brainchild of Nitish Kumar, who quit as the state’s chief minister after his party fared poorly in general elections and reached out to his old rival Lalu Prasad for a tie up.
“We are very satisfied with the result. There was huge excitement over the 10 assembly by-elections in Bihar. People have reposed faith in us,” Nitish said, while Lalu, admitted to a Mumbai hospital, expressed his happiness at the outcome. “Voters have ratified their mistake. I thank them for their support,” Lalu twitted.
The Congress party was quick to point its guns on Modi with party spokesman Rashid Alvi saying the trend showed declining popularity of Modi and failure of his government to deliver on promises it made to the people during general elections.
The BJP, however, is not ready to concede defeat yet. “Assembly by-elections are fought on local issues. At the most, the outcomes are a message to us. We will analyse the result and strengthen organisation in constituencies were failed,” BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
What is bound to worry the BJP is that the by-election results may have cascading impact in four states slated to go elect their new assemblies between October and December this year. The BJP is making a strong pitch to come to power on its own for the first time in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir while angling to return to power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
BOX
BIHAR
Polling took place for 10 seats. BJP had won six, Janata Dal-United three and Rashtriya Janata Dal one in 2010 assembly elections. BJP had established leads over is rivals in eight of these 10 constituencies in May Lok Sabha polls.
Both RJD and JD-U contested four seats each while two seats were allocated to the Congress party.
RJD won from Mohiuddinnagar, Rajnagar and Chhapra while state ruling JD-U won in Jale and Parbatta. Congress party wrested Bhagalpur seat from BJP after 23 years. BJP which contested on nine seats managed to win Mohania, Narkatiaganj, Hajipur and Banka while its ally Lok Janshakti Party which contested one seat was routed.
KARNATAKA
By-elections were held for three seats — Bellary rural, Shikaripura and Chikkodi-Sadalaga — after sitting legislators B Sriramulu, former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Prakash Hukkeri were elected to the Lok Sabha. Congress party’s N.Y. Gopalakrishna won Bellary rural seat by 34,000 votes and retained Chikkodi-Sadalaga with Hukkeri’s son Ganesh Hukkeri won the seat comfortably. B.Y. Raghavendra, son of Yeddyurappa, just about managed to emerge winner by 4,000 votes.
PUNJAB
By-elections were held for two seats — Patiala and Talwandi Sabo. Former federal minister Preneet Kaur who failed to retain her Patiala Lok Sabha seat managed to win Patiala assembly seat vacated by her husband and former Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh after he won Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. The state’s ruling Akali Dal’s Jeet Mohinder won Talwandi Sabo seat.
MADHYA PRADESH
State’s ruling BJP, which won assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the central state in style, received a shock as the Congress party wrested Bahoriband seat from the BJP, which managed to retain Aagar and Vijayraghavgarh seats.
Failure to retain one seat in Madhya Pradesh is bound to embarrass the state’s chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who was seen as a potential rival to his then Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
