Opposition arithmetic: The by-poll outcome is a big jolt for the BJP

After the latest round of by-polls, warning bells ought to begin ringing in the BJP headquarters

Is a trickle becoming a flood?  Earlier this year, the defeat of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elections — won by the party by a margin of over 300,000 votes each in the 2014 general elections — was dismissed as an aberration, an upset achieved by an artificially unified Opposition. The BJP said airily that unity of parties with conflicting interests was transactional and could not last. Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeated this at Baghpat earlier this week on the eve of the Kairana election, warning voters that enemies of the BJP