Opposition wins big in bypolls, BJP banks on ‘PM’ for 2019

Dealing a blow to the ruling BJP, Opposition parties on Thursday emerged victorious in 11 out of 14 Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls while limiting the saffron party and its allies to just three, and snatching the high-profile Kairana Parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh with a united force.

With prestige at stake in every single bypoll in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, the Opposition leaders latched onto Thursday’s results across 11 states to claim sliding popularity of the Narendra Modi-led government, even as the BJP asserted that the PM - which it described as ‘P’ for performance and ‘M’ for Mehnat (hard work) - would decide the Lok Sabha poll next year.

However, Opposition leaders saw a big boost for strengthening non-BJP unity with the ruling party losing Kairana Lok Sabha seat in the politically important UP to a united Opposition after a communally-charged election campaign, while the result in the Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra was similar.

The BJP retained another Lok Sabha seat from Maharashtra, Palghar, where it had faced its own ally Shiv Sena, but the Opposition could not put a united fight.

BJP’s Rajendra Gavit won the seat, defeating Shiv Sena’s Shrinivas Wanaga.

In Nagaland, the fourth Lok Sabha seat for which bypoll was held on Monday, went to BJP’s ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).

While the Lok Sabha bypoll results were equally divided at 2-2 between the BJP-led alliance and the opposition parties, figures for the 10 assembly bypolls came as a big setback for the ruling party which could win just one (in Uttarakhand).

The Congress bagged three (in Meghalaya, Karnataka and Punjab) and others got six JMM two in Jharkhand; CPI (M), SP, RJD and Trinamool one each in Kerala, UP, Bihar and West Bengal, respectively.