Byelection results give BJP reasons to smile

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday had reasons to feel smug at the byelection results. Contrary to apprehension in its own ranks and expectation in the opposition, the party convincingly won the seats in Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and did creditably enough in Tripura and West Bengal.

All the results however followed the predictable pattern of ruling parties in the states romping home without much hiccup. The CPI(M) retained the seats in Tripura, the AIADMK swept all the seats in Tamil Nadu and Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamul Congress duly won the seats in West Bengal.

Comprehensive victories

Yet another feature of the results declared today was the comprehensive nature of the victories. Whoever won, left the runner-up far behind. Even in Puducherry, which provided the Indian National Congress the only consolation seat in the Assembly, the party polled a whopping 69% of the votes cast, as per the Election Commission website.

This trend was followed in every state with the BJP bagging 60% of the votes in MP, 53.8% in Assam and 53.2% in Arunachal Pradesh. In West Bengal it was the AITC which polled 77.6% of the votes followed by the CPM (10.6%) and the BJP (8.5%).

The result would have come as a major setback to the Congress, which had hoped to do better in both Madhya Pradesh and Assam. But while it managed to reduce the margin in Shahdol Parliamentary constituency (with some reports referring to a nine per cent swing away from the BJP to the Congress), it lost the Nepanagar Assembly seat by a bigger margin than last time.

While in Assam, the Congress polled a respectable 41% votes, in Tripura its share plunged to a meagre 2%, both Congress leaders and voters having apparently migrated to Mamata Banerjee’s AITC which polled 19.8% of the votes, just a little short of BJP’s 20.5%.

The announcement on demonetisation was expected to affect the byelections in various ways. Political parties had voiced their concern that voters might not turn out at the polling booths, having to queue outside banks. But belying such apprehension, the voter turnout was very high in all the states ranging from 66 to 90%.

It is not known whether political parties were handicapped by the demonetisation or whether only the opposition felt the pinch. But the jury is still out on whether the results can be deemed to be a vindication of the Government’s policy on demonetisation.

There can, however, be little doubt over the fact that the last 10 days of campaigning in these elections were dominated by the so-called surgical strike on black money. To that extent, the BJP would be right in gloating that most of the people supported the Government’s move despite their personal hardship.

But political observers sound a note of caution. Byelections , they point out, are rarely influenced by national issues.

Detailed Bypoll Results

ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Hayuliang AC

Dasanglu Pul of BJP defeated her lone rival Independent candidate Yompi Kri by 942 votes. In 2014, her late husband Kalikho Pul on a Congress ticket defeated Banim Kri of BJP by 5,770 votes.

ASSAM

Lakhimpur PC

BJP retains Lakhimpur PC. Pradan Baruah wins by 2,42,177 votes. Ín 2014, BJP's Sarbananda Sonowal won by a 2.9 lakh vote margin.

Baithalangso AC

Dr. Mansing Rongpi won as the BJP candidate by 16,600 votes. Earlier this year, he had won as the Congress candidate by 9,519 votes.

MADHYA PRADESH

Shahdol PC

BJP candidate Gyan Singh defeats Cong's Himadri Singh by a 60,000+ votes margin. In 2014, BJP's Dalpat Singh Paraste had won over his nearest Congress rival by 2.4 lakh+ votes.

Nepanagar AC

BJP candidate Manju Dadu wins by a margin of 42,198 votes over Congress candidate Antar Singh Barde. In 2013, her father late Rajendra Shyamlal Dadu defeated Congress candidate Ramkishan Patel by 22,178 votes.

PUDUCHERRY

2016: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy wins Nellithope Assembly bypoll defeating AIADMK’s Om Sakthi Segar by a margin of 11,144 votes

TAMIL NADU

AIADMK candidate M Rengasamy won the Thanjavur assembly seat by over 25,000 votes against DMK candidate Anjugham Boopathy. AIADMK has also won Aravakurichi and Thiruparankundram ACs. Final figures awaited.

TRIPURA

Barjala AC

CPI(M)'s Jhumu Sarkar defeated runner-up BJP rival Shistamohan Das by 3,374 votes. Trinamul Congress pushed Congress into 4th place in this seat.

Khowai AC

CPI(M) candidate Biswajit Datta defeated his nearest TMC rival Manoj Das by 16,047 votes.

WEST BENGAL

Cooch Behar PC
TMC candidate Partha Pratim Roy wins by 4,13,231 vote margin over runner up BJP. The seat was won by TMC's late Renuka Sinha by 80,000+ vote margin over AIFB in 2014. AIFB was pushed into third place by BJP.

Tamluk PC
TMC candidate Dibyendu Adhikari defeated his nearest CPI(M) rival Mandira Panda by 4.97 lakh votes. In 2014, TMC's Suvendu Adhikari won this seat by a 2.5 lakh vote margin.

Monteswar AC
TMC candidate Saikat Panja wins, defeating his nearest CPI(M) rival Md Osman Gani Sarkar by 1,27,127 votes. Earlier this year, TMC candidate late Sajal Panja won by just 706 votes over nearest CPI(M) rival Chaudhuri Md Hedayatullah .