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Bad news for BJP in by-polls touted as test for Modi govt

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Bad news for BJP in by-polls touted as test for Modi govt

In the end, the results of by-elections to four Lok Sabha and 11 Assembly seats spread over ten states came as bad news for the BJP.

In the ‘give no quarter’ style of electoral politics, with slogans like ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’, pushed by BJP president Amit Shah, the saffron party has gone all out to win every election, raising its stakes to heights other parties seldom bother to.

This was evident as much in the bypolls whose results were declared today, Thursday, May 31. It would be wrong to say that the BJP had to be content with only one Lok Sabha seat it won in Palghar, Maharashtra – the party can hardly be said to be content with the result: that is not in the nature of the party under Amit Shah.

The BJP won one Lok Sabha seat of Palghar in Maharashtra, its ally got one in Nagaland, and it bagged one of the 11 Assembly seats – the lone seat coming from Uttarakhand.

In Palghar constituency, BJP’s Rajendra Gavit, who defected from Congress, won by 29572 votes. Shiv Sena had fielded Shriniwas Wanga, son of late BJP MP Chintaman Wanga, further straining its ties with BJP.

The Palghar seat saw a multi-cornered contest between Rajendra Gavit (BJP), Baliram Jadhav (Bhaujan Vikas Aghadi), Shriniwas Wanaga (Shiv Sena) and Damodar Singhda (Congress). The election was necessitated following the death of sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanaga in January 2018 and the Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha bypolls were necessitated following the resignation of sitting BJP MP Nana Patole.

When BJP secured a lead, Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena, said, “Many EVMs were faulty, names of about 50-60,00 people were missing from voter list. Also, within 12 hours of voting ending, EC changed vote percentage. So all this is very doubtful.”

In Nagaland, BJP ally and ruling party Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party’s (NDPP) candidate Tokheho Yepthomi was expected to defeat Congress supported Nagaland People’s Front’s candidate. The bypoll here was necessiated when the sole Lok Sabha seat from the state fell vacant when after Neiphiu Rio became CM.

In Maharashtra’s Bhandara-Gondiya, it was a direct fight between NCP’s Madhukar Kukde and BJP’s Hemant Patle and the NCP, leading by over 50,000 votes, was expected to win. NCP has the support of the Congress. Election in the seat was necessitated after the resignation of sitting BJP (MP) Nana Patole over his criticism of the PM. Patole later joined the Congress. The election here was a prestige issue for the BJP as Patole had resigned blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “doing nothing for the farmers’ community in the last four years”. BJP defeat here was a jolt to BJP.

It was the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh that would hurt BJP the most. It was seen as a test for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the BJP suffered setbacks recently in Phoolpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seats – especially the latter which was UP CM’s home constituency and his stronghold – in the state.

Here, late Gujjar leader Hukum Singh’s daughter and BJP’s nominee Mriganka was trailing behind Tabassum Hasan of Rashtriya Lok Dal, (RLD), who is backed by SP, BSP, and Congress, by over 41,000 votes after nine rounds of counting.

The BJP had thrown in five state ministers, led by CM Adityanath himself. After the shock defeat in Gorakhpur, he campaigned hard, addressing public meetings on almost a daily basis. This was topped by a meeting by PM Narendra Modi himself, just a day before voting, after the campaigning came to a halt, when he did a road show in nearby Baghpat while inaugurating the Eastern peripheral expressway.

On the day of voting, there were large scale complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, especially in Dalit and Muslim dominated areas. While complaints came from over 150 booths, re-polling was held yesterday on 73 booths and it saw high turnout. Finally, however, the RLD overcame the hurdles.

RLD candidate Tabassum Hasan said, “This is the victory of truth. I still stand by what I said, there has been a conspiracy & we do not want any future elections to be conducted on EVM machines. The path for united opposition is clear in 2019.”

The Kairana result is indeed being seen as another signal for Opposition unity against BJP: both of its success and the necessity. It still remains to be seen how – or if – it would work out.

There was little for BJP to cheer even in Assembly bypolls.

The Congress secured wins in four seats: Maharashtra’s Palus Kadegaon, Meghalaya’s Ampati, Karnataka’s RR Nagar and Punjab’s Shahkot. In Kerala’s Chengannur, meanwhile, the CPM registered a massive win with its candidate Saji Cherian winning by over 20,000 votes. In Bihar, the RJD has trumped Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) to win the Jokihat seat. The Samajwadi Party has won Uttar Pradesh’s Noorpur seat.

In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party won Noorpur, defeating BJP candidate by over 6,000 votes. SP candidate Naeemul Hasan enjoyed the support of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the AAP.

At Jokihat in Bihar, RJD trounced JD(U) by a margin of 40000 votes. Bye-elections in Jokihat was necessitated after the resignation of JD-U’s Sarfaraz Alam. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who camped in the constituency, had hoped his minority welfare schemes will sway the Muslim and Yadav vote towards JD(U). However, his alliance with BJP has diminished his hold while it may have helped the BJP at his cost.

Speaking about the result, Lau Prasad’s son and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, “The number of votes JDU got, is less than our victory margin. People of Bihar are continuing to avenge the uturn taken by Nitish Kumar.”

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won both Assembly seats in Jharkhand, Gomia and Silli. The Gomia seat has been won by Babita Devi defeated AJSU nominee Lambodar Mahto. In Silli,Seema Mahto defeated AJSU chief and former state Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto by 13,000 votes.

In Shahkot Assembly seat in Punjab, the fight was between SAD and Congress and Congress’s Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia emerged winner.

In Meghalaya, Congress candidate Miani D Shira, who is also the daughter of former chief minister Mukul Sangma, won the Ampati seat. The victory gave the Congress 21 seats, making it the single largest party in the state. Both NPP — National People’s Party or NPP-led alliance led by chief Minister Conrad Sangma and the Congress had 20 seats each.

In West Bengal’s Maheshtala, TMC candidate Dulal Das won Maheshtala assembly bypoll in Bengal after beating BJP’s Sujit Kumar Ghosh by 62,827 votes. The BJP would be happy to be at second position, ahead of the Left-Congress combine.

The BJP won the seat in Uttarakhand with a margin of over 1,990 votes. Munni Devi Shah defeated Congress’ Jeetram. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of BJP’s Maganlal Shah.

In Karnataka, the Congress won the RR Nagar seat. Its candidate Muniratna won with a margin of over 41,000 votes over BJP rival Tulsi Muniraju Gowda. Polling for the seat was postponed by the Election Commission ahead of the Karnataka elections after the poll body found nearly 10,000 voter ID cards in an apartment in the constituency.

In Kerala, CPM won Chengannur Assembly seat. CPM Candidate Saji Cherian won by 20,956 votes, the biggest margin in the constituency so far. LDF led in all the 10 panchayats. Congress was in second spot with 46347 votes. The BJP, which was third, did not do too badly with 35270 votes

In Maharashtra’s Palus Kadegaon Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Vishwajeet Patangrao Kadam was elected unopposed. The seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MLA Patangrao Kadam. Vishwajeet Kadam, son of Patangrao Kadam, was the lone candidate in the fray after BJP withdrew its candidate Sangramsingh Deshmukh.

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Rahul Gandhi warns ED, CBI of strong action whenever government changes

The Congress leader’s statement follows after the Income Tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore.

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Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused central agencies of working at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre and warned them that strict action will be taken against these institutions when the government changes.

The senior Congress leader asserted that if the institutions had done their jobs properly there would have been no problem. He added that these agencies should think that some day the BJP government will change and after that there will be action. He further said that it is his guarantee that the action will be so strong that no institution will dare to do such things again.

Taking to social media platform X, Rahul Gandhi wrote that when the government changes, action will definitely be taken against those who destroyed the democracy. Mentioning that it is his guarantee, Rahul Gandhi said that such actions will be taken that no one will dare to do all this again.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement follows after the income tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore. The party has accused the ruling BJP of indulging in tax terrorism to financially cripple the opposition party ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

While addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters along with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, party treasurer Ajay Maken alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws. He said the I-T department should raise a demand of Rs 4,617.58 crore from the saffron party for such violations.

Ajay Maken said that the income-tax returns filed by Congress for eight years have been reopened on baseless and manufactured grounds to levy illegal I-T demand orders totalling thousands of crores of rupees. He stated that the timing of the I-T department’s action in February and March, days before and even days after the Lok Sabha election were announced on March 16, speaks for itself about the mala-fide nature of these actions.

Furthermore, the opposition party will hold nationwide protests over the weekend against fresh income tax demand of over Rs 1,800 crore, which it has described as an egregious attack on democracy and imposition of tax terrorism amid the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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Hardeep Singh Puri says Sunita Kejriwal is preparing to hold Delhi CM post like Rabri Devi

The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office along with leaders including Delhi BJP Chief Virendra Sachdeva and Bansuri Swaraj.

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Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday compared Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, hinting that she may be gearing up to take on her husband’s post. The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office.

The BJP leader further took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister for forming an alliance with the most corrupt party against whom they had started an anti-corruption movement with social activist Anna Hazare. The minister made the statement in response to a question regarding Sunita Kejriwal, who earlier today launched a whatsapp campaign advocating for support for her husband, who is in ED custody in connection with the Excise policy case.

In a video Sunita Kejriwal said her husband has challenged the most corrupt and dictatorial forces in the country and asked people to support her husband through their prayers and blessings. She issued 2 WhatsApp numbers 8297324624 and 9700297002 through which people can send their blessings, prayers or any other messages to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and she will communicate those to him.

She said yesterday Kejriwal had presented his side in the court, and the entire country heard it. She requested the people to listen to it if they had not listened till now. She added whatever Kejriwal had said in front of the court required a lot of courage. She said her husband is a true patriot. She requested the people to participate in the Kejriwal ko Aashirwad campaign.

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari also took a dig at Aam Aami Party asking why only Kejriwal’s wife is coming out in his support, and not the people of Delhi. He said the Honorable Justice of High Court said they cannot stop Arvind Kejriwals’ arrest that they are surprised why he hasn’t been arrested yet?

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Lok Sabha elections: INDIA bloc in Bihar seals seat-sharing deal, Congress get 9 seats, RJD 26

Purnea and Katihar, currently held by the Janata Dal (United), had emerged as the sticking point in seat-sharing talks between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

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The Opposition INDIA bloc sealed the seat-sharing deal in Bihar for 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Mahagathbandhan’s largest constituent, RJD will field its candidates from 26 seats, including Purnea and Hajipur, while the Congress will contest on nine seats, including Kishanganj and Patna Sahib. Meanwhile, the Left will fight on five seats.

Purnea and Katihar, currently held by the Janata Dal (United), had emerged as the sticking point in seat-sharing talks between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

Reportedly, the Congress has been made to give up the Purnea Lok Sabha seat, which recent entrant Pappu Yadav, husband of Rajya Sabha MP Ranjeet Ranjan, was hoping to contest, mentioning that he had received assurance of Congress ticket from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

The seat will be contested by RJD, which recently gave the party ticket to JD(U) turncoat Bima Bharti, but stopped short of announcing it formally. The INDIA bloc seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over. The RJD has fielded its candidates in all four seats going to elections in the first phase.

Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav attended an INDIA bloc meeting regarding Bihar’s seat-sharing formula at Congress leader Mukul Wasnik’s residence and said that the RJD, the Congress and the Left will fight the Lok Sabha elections together in Bihar. He added that the INDIA bloc partners have agreed verbally on the seat-sharing arrangement and all the constituents are getting a respectable deal. Tejashwi Yadav’s remarks came amid reports of disquiet in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance in Bihar over seat sharing.

In the previous Lok Sabha elections, the National Democratic Alliance, including the BJP, JD(U) and LJP won 39 seats. The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections is scheduled for April 19.

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