Updated: November 11, 2020 7:33:18 am
Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and BJP State President VD Sharma in Bhopal on Tuesday. (PTI)
As the vote count in Bihar crept slowly into Tuesday night, the BJP received a big boost in elections held for Assembly seats in other parts of the country.
In Madhya Pradesh, it had won or established an advantage in 19 of the 28 seats in the Assembly for which by-elections were held on November 3, ensuring that the government of Prime Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is no longer under threat.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, the BJP had won or led in 40 of the 59 Assembly seats that went to by-elections, including one seat in Manipur in which the BJP candidate was elected unopposed.
The party had retained its dominance in Uttar Pradesh (won 6 of 7 seats), Gujarat (won 8 of 8) and Karnataka (won 2 of 2).
For Congress, the only good news came from Chhattisgarh Y Haryana, where he won by elections to the seats of Marwahi and Baroda respectively. Congress also won Bermo’s seat in Jharkhand, while his ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won in Dumka.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with deupty CM Keshav Maurya and BJP State Chairman Swatantra Dev Singh celebrate on Tuesday after BJP won 6 seats in Uttar Pradesh Bypolls, at the BJP head office in Lucknow. Express photo by Vishal Srivastav
The results underscored the general trend for the ruling state party to have the upper hand in the Assembly by elections. Baroda in Haryana, where the election was necessitated by the death of veteran Congress leader Sri Krishan Hooda, was the exception.
The BJP said the results demonstrated the change in the “grammar of Indian politics”, in that “performance and development” had been rewarded by voters.
“The BJP victory in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and other secondary elections have underscored the point that the BJP has been making: that performance and development policies would prevail. This is an endorsement that despite caste, class and community issues, performance matters. All of this indicates a change in the grammar of Indian politics, ”said BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
The disputed elections in Madhya Pradesh were sparked by the departure of Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress, which took with him 22 MLA, resulting in the fall of the 15-month government of Kamal Nath. All of these MLAs joined the BJP and three other MLAs from Congress subsequently left. Three other House seats were vacated after the death of the board of directors.
The BJP, which has 107 MLAs, needed to win 9 of the 28 seats that went to the polls to cross the halfway point in the 230-member Assembly. Scindia, who fought a prestigious battle in the Gwalior-Chambal region, surrendered for the BJP, while the performance of the Congress, which had won 6 and was leading with 3 seats at 11pm, was a loss of face for its senior leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.
BJP supporters celebrate the victory of the polls in Gandhinagar on November 10 (Photo: Reuters)
The exhibition in Madhya Pradesh will allow Scindia to bargain hard before Narendra Modi’s ministry reorganization at the Center. The results are also important to BJP leader Narendra Singh Tomar, who had played a key role in bringing the MLA rebels from Congress to the party. The impressive performance will enhance your stature in the party and could further your major ministerial ambitions.
In Karnataka, The victories of the BJP underscored the popularity of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. The victory in Sira, a Vokkaliga-dominated seat that the BJP had never won before, has enhanced the political stature of Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra, who was in charge of the campaign. Party sources said the victories could silence critics of BSY at least for the time being.
Rajesh Gowda of the BJP defeated former Congressional Minister TB Jayachandra by more than 12,000 votes in Sira. The Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat was won by Munirathna from the BJP. The JD (S) candidates finished third in both seats.
The by-elections were the first electoral challenge for the newly appointed head of the Karnataka Congress, DK Shivakumar. Shivakumar and his brother and MP DK Suresh had led the Congressional campaign and expected a vote consolidation from Vokkaliga in favor of the party. Munirathna had represented RR Nagar’s seat twice for Congress.
In UP, the Samajwadi Party only won Malhani’s seat, which he also won in 2017. The performance of the BJP will further raise the stature of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the party. Adityanath has recently faced criticism for his government’s handling of the Hathras incident.
Congress beat Baroda in the Sonipat district of Haryana by a greater margin than last time. The Jat-dominated seat is a stronghold of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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