AA Edit | Priyanka’s win a status quo verdict
Status quo may have prevailed but there was a tinge of excitement to it with the advent of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into mainstream national politics and the capturing of a bit of lost ground by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Bypolls, per se, tend to favour the party in power, which is what was seen in a majority of the byelections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies held along with the Maharashtra and Jharkhand end-of-term polls.
The resounding victory of Priyanka in the Wayanad seat in Kerala vacated by her brother Rahul revalidates the family’s hold on a national political leader image, regardless of the degree of its success in terms of states and number of seats, which may have declined since 2014 and the arrival of BJP.
Victory may have been a given for the Congress in a three-way fight with the LDF and the BJP in Kerala. It was the margin by which Priyanka won — by well over four lakh votes — that spells out a promise that this is no one-seat phenomenon of a prominent legacy political personality.
A fresh face in Parliament for the grand old party to oppose the ruling coalition and its policy thrusts cannot but be a good thing when a few contentious bills are certain to come to the House. However, it does also engender fear of a parallel power centre that may attract party insiders so far accustomed to seeing only Rahul as the Congress heir.
BJP had more than the big Maharashtra win to celebrate as Yogi Adityanath helped the party claw back considerable ground, including a win in a SP stronghold seat, after the lukewarm performance in the Lok Sabha polls in UP to which the party’s fall from the dominant single party majority status could be ascribed.
The fact that Bengal is Mamata Banerjee’s fortress hardly needs to be stressed. The TMC sweep in the bypolls is just a reminder that she is the supremo in the eastern state with a unique hold on the people who see her wish as their command. Not to be outdone, prominent Northeast figure Himanta Biswa Sarma delivered a sweep.
The recent trend of AAP making Punjab its stronghold was sustained in the bypoll verdict. The surprise may have been Congress’ 3-0 performance in Karnataka as they snatched a seat from the Gowda family. Considering the flak flying from corruption allegations in Bengaluru, the verdict was a reiteration of the hold of ruling parties.