THE ELUSIVE WINNING FORMULA

FRENEMIES Who’ll be the face of the Opposition—a Gandhi or Mamata Banerjee?

- Kaushik Deka

Byelections in India typically favour the incumbent government, and are not generally considered a reliable barometer of the public mood. For instance, in the bypolls held in March 2018, the ruling BJP lost two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, including Gorakhpur, the bastion of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. A year later, the saffron party stormed back to power, winning 303 seats across India, and 62 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Gorakhpur returned to the BJP fold.

This is the reason political observers are not reading too much into the results of the recent bypolls held in 30 assembly and three Lok Sabha constituencies, where the BJP had an underwhelming outing. For the record, the BJP won just seven of the 23 assembly seats it contested and lost all seats in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, where it is in power. While the Congress won eight of 26 seats, regional parties, not aligned with the BJP or Congress, won six. In Mizoram and Meghalaya, the BJP lost to its regional allies in two seats.