Major blow to BJP in bypolls, worst hit in UP

The BJP today suffered a major blow in in the Assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat,the states it had swept in the Lok Sabha polls four months ago, losing 13 of the 24 seats held by it.
Considered yet another test of popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today's reverses in the by-elections come after the party's disappointing performance in the assembly by-elections in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in the last two months.
Out of the 32 Assembly seats across nine states for which counting of votes was taken up today, BJP won 10, Congress seven and Samajwadi Party seven while TDP, Trinamool Congress, AIUDF and CPI(M) bagged one each. One seat in Sikkim was won by an Independent. In three seats in UP where results were awaited, BJP was leading in two and Samajwadi Party in one.

It was Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP was on a high after a near-total sweep of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, that delivered a humiliating blow to the saffron party as it lost seven of the 11 seats held by it, including one held by its ally Apna Dal. BSP's absence in the by-elections had made it a virtual straight fight between SP and BJP in the politically crucial state.
Equally crushing was the defeat in Rajasthan where BJP conceded three of the four seats to Congress, which also managed to wrest three of the nine seats in Gujarat, where the elections were held for the first time in 12 years sans Narendra Modi.

All the seats in Uttar Pradesh (11), Gujarat (9) and Rajasthan (4) were held by BJP and the bypolls were necessitated after the MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Gloating over BJP's reverses, the Congress and Samajwadi Party called it as a defeat of the communal forces. They said people had rejected the Narendra Modi Government and BJP's "politics of polarisation".
The BJP, which is hoping to do well in the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, conceded that the bypoll results were not up to expectations and said that people had voted on local issues.
The only solace for BJP on an otherwise dismal day was its entry in West Bengal Assembly.