The elephant trumpeted victory for the BSP in the crucial assembly byelections in UP on Tuesday. The ruling party won three of the four seats handsomely. Byelections to nine more seats are to be held in next 2 months.
The Congress, seen as the major challenger in these by elections, is deriving consolation from increase in its vote count as compared to 2007. The SP lost both the seats (Malihabad and Vidhuna) it had won in 2007 to the BSP. The BJP fared the worst. Not only did it end up fourth in three seats, it even lost the Moradabad-West seat it had won in 2007. The saffron party’s only consolation is that it helped the Rashtriya Lok Dal retain Morna (Muzaffarnagar) that RLD won in 2007.
UP CM Mayawati, who did not campaign in the bypoll, described the result a victory of her government’s policies.
The results prove it is too early to write off the BSP, and that anti-incumbency is a far cry where the Mayawati magic is concerned, regardless of how many Dalit houses Rahul Gandhi visits. Mayawati said that after the Lok Sabha polls people had understood that the Congress, SP and BJP had a secret understanding to stop a “Dalit ki Beti” from becoming PM.
The Congress is trying to explain away the BSP sweep as a result of the “gross misuse of official machinery” by the state government. UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi said despite repeated pleas by her party, the Mayawati government did not deploy central para military forces. She also said that the results were an indicator of the Congress’s increasing popularity.
