Calls for common oppn front against BJP in 2019 grow after loss in UP, Bihar

The reverses suffered by the BJP in the Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar today triggered urgent calls by rival parties to forge an united opposition front to take on the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

As Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) supremo Mayawati led the opposition charge urging people not to let the BJP to come to power again at the Centre, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav indicated his party was keen on burying the hatchet with the BSP, saying sometimes "past incidents have to be forgotten". Mayawati also said the BJP may go in for early general elections.

Addressing a rally in Chandigarh, Mayawati said her party supported the SP candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha bypolls in order to defeat the BJP.

In a stunning blow to the BJP yesterday, the party yesterday lost bypolls to all the three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.

While BJP's estranged ally Shiv Sena said the results will give a boost to the opposition, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP said it showed that a united opposition can defeat the BJP-led regime. The NCP termed the BJP's defeat as a "shape of things to come."