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BJP, regional parties win big as Congress slips in bypolls
The bypoll, the first such elections after Mallikarjun Kharge become the new president of the party, once again underlined that the Congress is unable to halt its slide. The party has lost 35 assembly elections in the past eight years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in Delhi.
The by-election of seven assembly constituencies in Sunday reinforced the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strength in the Hindi heartland, as it also offered a booster for Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena and regional parties such as TRS and RJD. The Congress, however, continued its slide, with the loss of two seats earlier held by the party.
The BJP won Haryana’s Adampur seat that was vacated by former Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi following the loss of Congress’ Ajay Maken in the Rajya Sabha election in July. Kuldeep’s son Bhavya Bishnoi defeated Congress candidate Jai Prakash by 16,000 votes. The Adampur seat had remained with the Bhajan Lal’s family since 1968. The ruling BJP retained the Gola Gokarannath seat in UP and Bihar’s Gopalganj assembly constituency.
The victory in the Andheri (East) bypoll came as a major boost for former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackarey after he lost his government to Eknath Shinde faction in June. Uddhav’s candidate Rutuja Latke, backed by NCP and the Congress, retained the Sena seat. She had to fight without Sena’s traditional poll symbol as it was frozen by the Election Commission.
“This is just the beginning of a fight. The (party) symbol is important, but people look for the character too. The bypoll results show people support us,” Thackeray said. The BJP had withdrawn its candidate at the last moment. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole claimed the result underlined the people have rejected the “politics of horse-trading and terrorising political opponents”.
The RJD, now an ally in the Bihar government, retained the Mokama seat that fell vacant after winner Neelam Devi’s husband and former lawmaker Anant Singh was disqualified. The BJP, however, retained the Gopalganj seat in what was the first electoral battle after chief minister Nitish Kumar swapped sides to form a government with the help of RJD and Congress.
The ruling TRS in Telangana won the Munugode assembly, giving a fillip to the party before next year’s assembly election.
The Congress lost all three seats it contested in this round of the bypoll, including the two seats, Adampur and Munugode, where the party had MLAs. In Munugode, the party even failed to give a tough fight and came third with just 12,025 votes.
The bypoll, the first such elections after Mallikarjun Kharge become the new president of the party, once again underlined that the Congress is unable to halt its slide. The party has lost 35 assembly elections in the past eight years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in Delhi.
The seat in Telangana perhaps would hurt Congress more than other losses and it comes as a stark reminder of the party’s strength. The Congress has already announced it would fight alone in Telangana assembly poll.
