By-poll Results: Samajwadi Party Wrests BJP Seats in UP, Wins On PM Modi’s Turf

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow, Sep 16, 2014:  A day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tweeted about "drawing inspiration for 2017, no matter what the outcome" of by-polls in the state, his Samajwadi Party received a heartening score.

The Samajwadi Party has wrested eight of 11 assembly seats vacated by the BJP and its ally and retained the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat vacated by its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Chief Minister’s father.

The results are a big jolt for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in a state where the party scripted its biggest success story just four months ago.

Among the BJP’s big losses is the Rohaniya seat of its ally Apna Dal, which falls within PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi.

In results till now, the BJP has retained two seats and is leading in one more.

"The people of UP have rejected communal forces," said an upbeat Akhilesh Yadav.

Senior BJP leader and Union minister Uma Bharati said the "Modi wave" is still intact, but "state worker and leaders need to introspect."

In the national election, BJP won 71 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, leaving just five for the Samajwadi Party and two for the Congress. The party credited its victory to its master strategist Amit Shah, who was rewarded with the post of BJP president in July.

That it has lost eight of its seats to the Samajwadi Party is a neon sign that the BJP’s strategy is faltering. The next assembly polls are three years away.

The absence of the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati seems to have cost the BJP too, as votes against the party were not split.

As the BJP looked set to lose most of the seats in today’s race, the spotlight was on its four-time MP Yogi Adityanath, who was the party’s star campaigner for the by-polls.

Adityanath’s controversial speeches on "Love Jihad" - a term used by rightwing groups to describe what they believe is an Islamist strategy to seduce and convert Hindu women - have apparently backfired.

His provocative comments contrasted sharply with the BJP’s careful retreat from the strident pro-Hindu agenda that is associated with its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and allied groups. But the party made no apparent move to rein in the firebrand saffron-robed leader. Critics accuse the party of leaning on the ’Love Jihad’ campaign to polarise voters.

 

Courtesy: NDTV