The major setbacks suffered by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat will give the party enough food for thought before the upcoming polls in two major states. In the latest round of by-elections for 32 assembly seats spread across nine states, the BJP failed to retain 14 seats and could win just a dozen seats. But what will hurt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the most is the rejection by his fellow Gujarat voters as the Congress party managed to snatch three seats in the state.
The latest by-election results saw the Congress and the Samajwadi Party bounce back, even as the ruling party at the Centre won a significant victory by getting a lawmaker into the West Bengal assembly after a 15-year hiatus. This is the third time that the BJP has suffered such reversals in by-elections since the Narendra Modi government came to power. Also worrying for the party is whether the string of defeats would have an impact on the upcoming assembly elections in four states. While Maharashtra and Haryana are scheduled to go to the polls next month, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will elect their new legislative assemblies later this year.
Although it is often thought that the electorate votes differently for the parliamentary and assembly elections, there are murmurs in the BJP about Modi’s autocratic style of functioning. Workers have also been disgruntled because of the systematic isolation of senior leaders in the party and the way it has treated founders like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Whatever the reason for the current poll results, the party needs to take stock.
