BJP’s dominance
THE results of the byelections for seven Assembly seats across six states are on predictable lines. The BJP, as expected, has retained a seat each in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, and wrested one from the Congress in Haryana. The party’s dominance exposes a fragmented Opposition. It can take solace that, as of now, any eventuality of a grand coalition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 2024 third-term bid seems remote. Yet, the BJP’s worries are immediate. It would be hoping that the electoral success provides a boost to its prospects in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. The November 12 Assembly elections in the hill state, where it is facing anti-incumbency, would test the party’s vote-garnering skills.
The rhetoric of dynasty politics is flagged non-stop. The irony is that various parties fielded family members of legislators whose deaths or defections necessitated the November 3 bypolls. In Adampur, the late Bhajan Lal’s clan held on to the seat it has not lost since he first won in 1968. The drop in the victory margin of his grandson Bhavya Bishnoi, fielded by the BJP after MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi quit the Congress, is an inconsequential statistic. After the bypoll losses in Baroda and Ellenabad, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar can rest a bit easy. AAP’s Haryana dreams, meanwhile, have got a bitter reality check.
The Telangana result is a mixed bag for the BJP, which is desperate to spread its wings. It had set its eyes on upstaging the TRS again after winning two bypolls in the last couple of years, but lost by over 10,000 votes. For Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who nurtures national ambitions, the Munugode bypoll was a prestige battle. He is likely to up the ante post the victory. In the firing line would be not just the BJP but also the Congress, which had won this Assembly seat in 2018 only to see its MLA switch over to the BJP. What adds to the embarrassment is the fact that the bypoll coincided with the Telangana leg of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
