Why NaMo Got The By-Poll Shocker

New Delhi: Democracy can be a great leveller and it has been proven with the by-polls in states – including the saffron stronghold of Gujarat and Rajasthan and the battleground state of UP –  which gave a thumbs down to the ruling BJP, still in its honeymoon phase after its big win in the general elections. While it does not claim a no confidence vote for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the big loss in UP should make the ruling party rethink its strategy as the voters seem to have rejected the communal plank of “love jihad”.

Analysts believe that the setback is largely the result of BJP slipping on its development plans. Just four months after the party won the parliamentary elections in an extraordinary style, riding high on the promise of development and a huge groundswell of support for its charismatic prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the loss is bound to create murmurs in the ground that senior leaders are being sidelined. 

While the mega win in the E-2014 left Congress comatose, it also made the saffron party look almost invincible. The party has suffered jolts in the key state of UP, where it did extremely well in the general elections; it has ceded considerable ground in two other prestige fights: Rajasthan, which it had won back from Congress in the 2013 assembly polls, and Gujarat, which has been a saffron turf for years.

The only silver lining was in West Bengal, where it won the South Basirhat seat, marking the opening of the party’s account in the state’s 294-member assembly, which is dominated by Trinamool Congress.

However, Tuesday’s results are not the first post-May 16 jolt that BJP has got: In July, Congress bagged all three seats on offer in the Uttarakhand by-polls. In August, BJP suffered a 4-6 defeat at the hands of RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance in Bihar and yielded two strongholds to Congress in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

While the results and BJP’s drubbing is out in open after the by-poll results, NewsMobile takes a sneak peek into the impact these results would have on the major players in the various camps.

 

AMIT SHAH: The condition of Amit Shah is like that of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. While both are the match winners for their team, the former has been seen struggling with his strategies in the recent by-polls, the latter is off-stroke for quite a while now.

For Shah, by-elections have turned out to be a vastly different ballgame with his party suffering setbacks on Tuesday – the third such instance in about two months after disappointing performances in Uttarakhand and Bihar.  

While many local factors of the respective constituencies may have influenced the electoral outcome, it is true that at least in UP the party did make a mistake by jumping off the development platform and allowing loudmouths like Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj to float crazy ideas like ‘love jihad’ and target the minorities. Other BJP leaders, however, dismissed this criticism saying the results were not a reflection on Shah’s proven acumen as a strategist and will have no bearing on his stature or authority in the party.

MAMATA BANERJEE: The ghosts of Saradha Chit Fund scam seems to have hit the red hot Didi and her chances in the state. While the party managed to save its seat in the urban area, in the rural area, it lost to the debutant BJP. That it lost the seat is not a matter of concern, but the fact that BJP won in the minority-dominated constituency is something alarming for TMC. It is also seen as a result of constantly nourishing presence of the saffron outfit in the state which has traditionally been a TMC-CPI-M bastion.

VASUNDHARA RAJE: The magic of its firebrand leader Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan did not work for BJP as the party lost 3-1 to Congress in the state. It is the first good news to come out of Rajasthan for Congress in almost a year since it lost the state it ruled for a decade to the BJP led by Vasundhara Raje, now chief minister. The victory is a big fillip for the Congress’ new in-charge in the state, Sachin Pilot, who has been assiduously rebuilding party cadres in the state since his party’s debacle in the national elections.

ANANDIBEN PATEL: This was the first election in two decades BJP fought in Gujarat without its star Narendra Modi. The newly-appointed chief minister Anandiben suffered a setback in her very first major task losing even the traditional BJP bastion to Congress’ hand. While it came as a major tension for BJP, it also calls for Anandiben to be more dependent on party high command.

SACHIN PILOT: The flamboyant Congress leader’s hard work on the ground paid him well as Congress did exceptionally well in the Rajasthan by-polls. Immediately after the drubbing in the general elections, he started rebuilding the strengthening the party cadres in the state which finally resulted in getting back some of its lost grounds in Rajasthan, which it lost badly to Vasundhara Raje-led BJP in the assembly elections last year.