Of late, the BJP has lost several byelections and did not fare too well in the Gujarat Assembly polls in December, giving the Congress — its principal opponent across the country — a morale boost. On Wednesday, news came of the saffron party’s defeats in byelections in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha for Assembly seats. The Congress retained the MP seats comfortably, though with reduced margins compared to the 2013 Assembly election, when the party had wrested these constituencies from the BJP after 10 years.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had made these byelections a prestige issue. The chief minister himself and many Cabinet ministers had campaigned heavily, but this was of no avail.
In Odisha, CM Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal gave the BJP a hiding — thrashing it by 41,000 votes in the byelection for the Bijepur Assembly seat, which was held by the Congress. The Congress candidate lost his deposit while the BJD won the seat after a 15-year gap. The state ruling party had made the widow of the late Congress MLA its candidate. Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the Odisha contest was that the BJP had begun to brag a lot, specially as the BJD seemed internally vulnerable due to some disgruntled elements, including senior figures, joining the BJP. In this eastern state, the Congress is in decline and sections of it have also sought newer pastures in the saffron party.
Electoral reverses since Gujarat have hurt the BJP’s prestige. But it’s too early to discern a strong anti-BJP mood based only on bypoll results. The next big test is the Karnataka Assembly polls in May, where the considerations will be somewhat different.
