Successful Sunday—a term that appropriately fits Bharatiya Janta Party’s present condition. Besides the resounding victory against AAP in Delhi, ‘saffron’ captured Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, as evident by the by-elections held this Saturday. BJP made impressive gains in 5 major states in India.
The bypolls were held on ten assembly seats this week. BJP won five out of 10 seats whereas the Congress grabbed 3 of them. The biggest loser in this game was Kejriwal led AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) that faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of BJP over Rajouri Garden assembly seat.
Here are the Score Cards of Political Parties in Bypolls
- Delhi: BJP trounced AAP in the national capital. BJP’s candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa trounced AAP’s Harjeeti Singh by a margin of more than 14,000 votes.
- Madhya Pradesh: BJP candidate Shivnarayan Singh defeated Congress candidate Savitri Singh by 25,476 votes while retaining its seat. The seat in Ater was a close-fought battle where Congress candidate Hemant Katare emerged victorious over Arvind Singh Bhadoria by a margin of 7,000+ votes.
- Himachal Pradesh: BJP nominee Dr. Anil Diman won the Boranj assembly seat, defeating congress candidate Promila Devi by 8,290 votes in the SC seat. This victory strengthened BJP’s bench strength (28) in the 68-member house.
- Karnataka: The ruling BJP put up a decent show against Congress but they failed to register their victory. Kalale N. Keshavmurthy (Congress candidate) defeated V. Srinivas Prasad by 21,000 in Nanjangud constituency. BJP’s C.S. Niranjan Kumar was defeated by Congress Candidate Geetha Mahadeva Prasad by 10,000 votes in Gundlupet.
- Rajasthan: BJP’s winning candidate ‘Shobha Rani Kushwaha’ emerged victorious by 91,548 votes (nearly 61.79%) against Congress contender Banwari Lal Sharma (52,875 votes). It was a lifetime record in the history of Rajasthan.
- Assam: There was a close-fight in Assam but BJP candidate Ranoj Pegu appeared victorious over Congress nominee Babul Sonowal in Dhemaji constituency. He nailed the game by a margin of 9,285 votes.
- West Bengal and Jharkhand: Both BJP and Congress lost to TMC candidate Chandrima Bhattacharya in Kanthi Dakshin (West Bengal) and JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) contender Simon Marandi in Littipara (Jharkhand).
In shot it was a 50-50 affair for BJP today! Congress was able to retain its respect up to some extent whereas AAP faced the most embarrassing defeat of all times. The results of these bypolls give us a preview of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The picture is quite clear before us!
