BJP’s victory in Sikanadara a worrying sign for Yogi as its victory margin shrinks      

Even as BJP has retained Sikanadara assembly seat in Kanpur dehat by winning the bye-election by over 11,000 votes defeating nearest Samajwadi Party candidate, the result is a worrying sign for the Bharatiya Janata Party because the winning margin has come down by almost 20,000 votes in just last nine months.

What would have happened had Samajwadi party and Congress had fielded a joint candidate? The analysis of the result shows that SP-Congress combine would had won the election easily by over 8,000 votes.

While the BJP candidate polled 73, 284 votes, SP candidate polled 61,423 votes and the Congress received 19,084 votes in a triangular contest. Among the total 11 candidates in the fray an independent Brajendra alias Bauwa Trivedi received 3,613 votes. If Congress and SP had fielded a joint candidate its total vote would had been 80,507 which is almost 7000 votes more than what BJP polled in this election.

During the assembly elections in March this year the then BJP candidate Mathura Prasad Pal had polled over 87,000 votes. The BJP votes were reduced by nearly 14,000 votes to 73,284 votes. Interestingly, in assembly election BSP was the main opponent and the party gave the bye-election a skip. The BJP had won in March by over 38,000 votes. BSP came second in that eletion.

The polling held on December 21 witnessed around 53 per cent voter turnout of the total 3.21 lakh voters. The seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Mathura Prasad Pal. BJP had fielded Mathura Prasad Pal's son Ajit Pal from the seat.

“This result is a clear indication of waning popularity of BJP. If a ruling party loses over 14,000 votes in just none months it shows that people are not happy with the governance of the ruling party,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhry said.

He said the real test will be uring the bye-polls of Phulpur an Gorakhphur bye-eletions. If opposition pays its card well the BJP will lose the election.

The Samajwadi Party, however allege that district administration has helped the ruling party candidate to win this election. Rakesh Sachan, the former Samajwadi party MP from Fatehpur, the husband of the SP candidate Seema Sachan had heated exchange with the district officials alleging rigging in the elections and tampering of the EVMs.

The SP candidate was confident of her victory as she led in first few rounds of counting. Later the BJP candidate established lead over the nearest rival and was declared elected after the completion of counting in 20 rounds.