New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday retained the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, while Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal won the Bijepur Assembly bypolls in Odisha, dealing a blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party which had campaigned aggressively in both the states.
The results of the byelections in these two crucial states, close on the heels of the BJP’s rout in Rajasthan bypolls, are being viewed as proof of “rapid decline” in the saffron party’s popularity.
Together, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan account for 75 Lok Sabha seats.
The defeat in Madhya Pradesh is a body blow to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who had gone all out to wrest the seats from the Congress, and a major boost to the Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia who is keen on being the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the elections due later this year. Both the seats fall under his Guna Lok Sabha constituency.
While the Congress’ Brijendra Singh Yadav defeated his BJP rival by a narrow margin of 2,124 votes in Mungaoli, Mahendra Singh Yadav defeated the BJP’s Devendra Jain in Kolaras by 8,083 votes.
Byelections to Mungaoli and Kolaras were necessitated following the death of sitting Congress candidates Mahendra Singh Kelukheda and Ram Singh Yadav respectively.
The Congress had won Mungaoli and Kolaras seats by margins of 20,765 and 24,953 seats respectively in the previous elections.
In Odisha, where the BJP had campaigned aggressively and claimed to be making “major inroads”, the party lost the Bijepur Assembly berth by a massive margin of 41,0933 votes. It’s being viewed as a major victory for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The byelection in Odisha was held following the death of three-time Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year.
The BJD fielded his widow as its candidate, while Ashok Panigrahi left the BJD and contested on a BJP ticket.
Mr Scindia, who addressed 76 rallies in both the constituencies, had openly declared the election as a “Scindia v/s Shivraj” battle and targeted the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for its failure to the address the problems of farmers and provide employment to educated youth.
The chief minister, who had addressed an equal number of rallies in both the constituencies, had fought on the poll plank of development and offered various sops to woo voters.
Since Mr Chouhan was facing massive anti-incumbency sentiment, virtually all the Cabinet ministers from Delhi were put on poll duty.
The results are being seen as an indicator of voters’ mood ahead of Assembly elections in MP later this year.
In Madhya Pradesh this is the second major victory for the Congress. In November 2017, it had won the Chitrakoot Assembly seat.
Conceding defeat, Mr Chouhan claimed that the absence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in both the seats had helped the Congress.
“BSP usually garners 30,000-35,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in both the seats demonstrate that the party had gained by the absence of BSP in the byelections”, he said. He claimed that the byelections would not have any impact on the upcoming Assembly elections.
“Both the Assembly seats are considered traditional Congress bastions. In 2013 Assembly elections, Congress won the two seats by a margin of over 25,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in the byelections have come down drastically,” the chief minister said.
