Besides impressive show in Gujarat, it also won one seat each in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
A wave of happiness swept across the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today after it scored impressive wins in by-elections in three key states, including Gujarat, where the party wrested five Assembly seats from the rival Congress.
Besides winning five of the seven Legislative Assembly seats in Gujarat, for which elections were held on September 10, the party also won one seat each in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
“The results have proven that our cadres have got rejuvenated and the party is surely on a comeback trail,” said general secretary Ravishankar Prasad. Party President Rajnath Singh said the results showed the Congress was losing ground in all the states where the by-elections were held.
One group in the BJP believes the election is Modi’s “personal victory”, though he had opted out of campaigning in view of allegations that his ‘high-profile’ presence during the Lok Sabha elections had contributed to the party’s defeat.
Modi’s detractors within the party feel his staying away from the campaign for the by-polls was the main reason for the party’s victory.
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However, Prasad said the BJP’s victory in Gujarat was in spite of “the Congress launching a high decibel campaign against Narendra Modi on the Ishrat Jehan case just before the polling date”.
With today’s results, the BJP’s strength in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly has gone to 122, while the Congress’ tally has slipped to 54.
In Uttarakhand, BJP has secured a wafer-thin majority on its own by winning the Vikasnagar seat. The party will now have 36 members in the 70-member House. Uttarakhand was the only BJP-ruled state where the party had drawn a blank in the recent Lok Sabha elections, which led to the ouster of chief minister B C Khanduri.
In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP wrested the Tendukheda seat from the Congress, while the latter retained the Gohad seat.
In Sikkim, the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front won the Namchi-Singhithang Assembly seat, leading the party to retain all the 32 seats in the House. The victory fulfilled Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling’s wishes to maintain a stranglehold over state politics by outwitting his rival Nar Bahadur Bhandari of the Sikkim Sangram Parishad.
In Andhra Pradesh, Congress retained the Tekkali seat. The by-election was held following the death of its MLA K Revathipati. The party had nominated Revathipati’s widow K Bharati from the seat which she won by around 7,000 votes against her nearest TDP rival, K Achhayya Naidu.