Will Anti-BJP Alliance Remain Intact?

Defeats in recent bypolls and a united opposition have rattled the BJP. But the Congress must win the three poll-bound states for the anti-BJP alliance to remain intact

- Pratul Sharma

Even before polling began for the byelection in the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency on May 28, BJP leaders had realised that another defeat for the party was on the cards in Uttar Pradesh. Kairana, which had fallen vacant after the death of MP Hukum Singh, slipped out of their hands after the humiliations in Gorakhpur and Phulpur. Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate Tabassum Hasan beat Singh’s daughter Mriganka by more than 44,000 votes to become the first Muslim MP from Uttar Pradesh—a state with 19 per cent Muslims—in the 16th Lok Sabha.

In the four Lok Sabha byelections held on the day, the BJP lost two seats. The Nationalist Congress Party took the Bhandara-Gondia seat in Maharashtra, which had been vacated after MP Nana Patole quit the BJP to join the Congress in December 2017. BJP-ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party retained Nagaland’s only Lok Sabha constituency (vacated after Neiphiu Rio resigned to become chief minister). The BJP won in Palghar, Maharashtra, which had been vacated after the death of its MP Chintaman Vanga, with a margin of 29,572, despite a four-way tussle in which its ally Shiv Sena was also an opponent.