The bypoll results weren’t entirely unexpected coming as they did soon after the grandstanding of Opposition parties as an anti-NDA front during government formation in Karnataka. The new-found commitment and the combined numbers were too overwhelming for the BJP, which is anyway on the low curve of popular expectation given the economic stasis in the country, which was further aggravated by the fuel prices and farm distress.
Kairana became the most watched seat as more than the RlD, it was a test of the SP-BSP entente on the ground. The SP also wrested Noorpur from the BJP and the
bua-babua magic, which was being considered something of a fluke during Phoolpur and Gorakhpur byelections last year, seems to be holding good. Whether this camaraderie will hold during a mainline election or remain a pyrrhic headline remains to be seen. But definitely it is a blow to BJP’s second line poster boy Yogi Adityanath, who hasn’t quite delivered. In Bihar, lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD trumped NDA ally JD(U) while there is talk of Congress taking a shot at government formation in Meghalaya after it won an extra seat there. In Punjab, Capt Amarinder Singh’s magic holds as the Congress wrested a seat from NDA ally SAD.
