The Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypoll results will have no "direct" bearing on the coming assembly polls in Karnataka where the electoral dynamics is different, say political parties.
Wilting under the combined onslaught of the SP-BSP, the BJP suffered an embarrassing electoral reverse, losing the Gorakhpur seat which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had retained for five terms, and the Phulpur seat.
The Congress, the BJP and the JDS are expected to be locked in a triangular contest in the Karnataka polls.
The JDS, led by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, however, sees in the UP and Bihar results a hope for resurgence of regional parties, maintaining it was a rejection of both the national parties -- the Congress and the BJP.
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri said the bypoll results would not have any impact on the Karnataka elections as the fight would be directly between the BJP and the Congress.
The Karnataka BJP had planned to use Yogi Adityanath as its star campaigner for the elections. He has already toured the state thrice in the run-up to the elections.
"Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in a sarcastic tweet following the UP reversal for the BJP.
During Adityanath's visits, both he and Siddaramaiah had engaged in a Twitter and verbal duel, mocking at each other on the issue of development and governance.
"By-election results will not have any direct impact on Karnataka elections, apart from the fact that claims like the BJP is unstoppable or invincible... Nobody will be able to face up to them; to that extent it has been demolished," state Congress working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
On forming an anti-BJP front in Karnataka with JDS to keep the saffron party out of power as done by the SP and the BSP, Rao said, "Post poll what happens we can't say..."
"We are confident of getting majority on our own, and we are not entering into any such alliance," he said.
Rao said the JDS was not committed to any ideology, recalling that Deve Gowda's party had earlier joined hands with the BJP to form the government.
Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the "decisive defeat" and rejection of the BJP and the Modi brand would be a great morale booster and would pave the way for a resounding victory for the Congress in Karnataka.
Adityanath was projected by the BJP as its mascot along with B S Yeddyurappa for the Karnataka polls.
"Rejection of his personality and policies on his own home front has established his incapacity to lead or be a pan-India brand ambassador," Surjewala told PTI in Delhi.
AICC general secretary incharge of Congress in Karnataka K C Venugopal said the bye-election results will definitely have a positive effect on Congress prospects in Karnataka, after one of BJP's star campaigner Yogi Adityanath lost his own seat.
"It bodes well for the Congress prospects. The opposition momentum is also increasing. All this will be a morale booster for us," he said.
He added that the BJP will now have to change its strategy as its campaign was centred around Adityanath.
According to the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa, "In the arena of opportunistic politics, sworn enemiesbecame allies."
"Congress decimated in #UPByPolls & in Bihar.Congress candidates lost their deposits in UP, yet @INCIndia is euphoric & celebrating. We will ensure the same fate for @INCKarnataka in the coming elections," he tweeted.
Karnataka will witness a triangular contest among the Congress, the BJP and the JDS in most of the 224 seats that will go to polls in April/May.
Opposition BJP that is going all out to unseat the Congress and come back to power for a second time.
"UP by-election will not have any impact on Karnataka assembly polls, it was only a by-election result for Parliament seats," BJP leader and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar said.
Noting that the SP and the BSP are regional parties in Uttar Pradesh, he said the people in Karnataka always prefer national parties.
"What is the situation of the Congress in by-elections, it is zero... in Tripura and other places where elections were held, the Congress was out... the Congress doesn't have address."
Another senior state BJP leader Suresh Kumar pointed out that the situation in Karnataka was completely different from Uttar Pradesh.
"Everyone is doing conditional analysis of the poll results," he said, adding, each state has its own dynamics and political chemistry.
On the Congress and the JDS joining hands to keep the BJP out of power, he said "They will not join, thanks to Siddaramaiah."
The JDS, which has a strong base in the Vokkaliga community belt and is seeking to spread its wings in north Karnataka also, is enthused by the UP and Bihar polls outcome.
In the Karnataka polls, the JDS is hoping to emerge as a kingmaker.
"UP and Bihar bypoll results give the message against both the national parties.
"It has also given the message that if regional parties work together, people see them as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP in the country," JDS state president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said.
"There is huge sentiment for a regional party in Karnataka; it is both of a sentiment and emotion towards regional party here," he added.
The JDS has already entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BSP and is also in talks with Sharad Pawar's NCP.
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