Comments
The results of the by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, where the BJP suffered a stunning defeat against the SP-BSP alliance, look problematic for the Congress, too. In Bihar, by retaining the Araria seat, the RJD proved that it can contest the BJP-JD(U) combine even though its supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is in jail.
The results also indicate a resurgence of post-Mandal politics in Uttar Pradesh. OBC, Muslim and Dalit votes seem to have swung in favour of SP-BSP in Uttar Pradesh.
Vote share
It however does not give any hope for the Congress as the votes gathered by the party in 2018 are much lesser than what it got in 2014. The Congress had refused to join the SP-BSP alliance for the by-poll.
In Phulpur, cricketer Mohammad Kaif, who in 2014 contested as the Congress candidate, had secured 58,127 votes. But in 2018, the party’s candidate, Manish Mishra, got just 19,334 votes and lost his deposit. SP’s Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel secured 3,42,756 seats and defeated the BJP’s Kaushalendra Singh Patel by a margin of 59,613 votes. Ateeq Ahmed, an independent candidate, got 48,087, much more than the Congress.
In 2014, present Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had won the seat with a margin of 3,08,308 votes. SP candidate Dharam Raj Singh Patel had got 1,95,256 in 2014 and the BSP’s Kapil Muni Karwariya 1,63,710 votes.
In Gorakhpur, Congress’ Astbhuja Prasad Tripathi had got 45,719 votes in 2014. But in 2018, the party’s Surhita Chatterjee Kareem got just 18,844 votes. In 2014, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had won the seat with a margin of 3,12,783 votes. It was his best victory margin in the five elections he contested from the seat.
This bypoll, SP candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad’s victory margin was 21,881 votes. The BJP’s Upendra Dutt Shukla secured 4,34,476 votes.
In 2014, SP’s Rajmati Nishad had got 2,26,344 votes and the BSP’s Ram Bhual Nishad had secured 1,76,412 votes.
In Araria, the RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam defeated BJP-JD(U) combine’s Pradeep Kumar Singh by over 60,000 votes. In the 2014 election, when the RJD, the BJP and the JD(U) contested separately, the RJD’s Mohammed Taslimuddin had won with a margin of more than 1.4 lakh votes.
The Araria victory will further stamp the influence of the RJD in the State and it is likely to consolidate the Muslim-Yadav votes against the JD(U)-BJP alliance.
The Araria by-election is supposed to be a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who switched sides to the NDA after breaking the grand alliance with the RJD and the Congress.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.