Why BJP's aggressive campaigning for MP and Odisha by-polls didn't pay off

Days after the BJP was routed in the recent Rajasthan by-polls, the saffron party on Wednesday faced yet another defeat at the hands of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Biju Janata Dal in Odisha

Three assembly seats – Kolaras and Mungaoli in Madhya Pradesh and Bijepur in Odisha – had gone to polls on 10 February. However, what should have been a usual by-poll transformed into a high-pitched battle in which BJD in Odisha and Congress in MP left no stone unturned to counter BJP’s aggressive campaign.

Bijepur saw top leaders of the BJP aggressively campaigning for the party’s candidate in an attempt to make inroads into the state where assembly polls are scheduled simultaneously with the 2019 general elections. Similarly, BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had turned the by-polls in Madhya Pradesh