NEW DELHI: If the bypoll verdict on Tuesday is any indicator, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to be popular, as the BJP bagged or was leading in as many as 40 on 59 Assembly seats across 11 states where the by-elections were held.
The biggest gainers were Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Manipur counterpart N Biren Singh, as they were assured of stability on the back of the BJP’s sweeping victories in both the states.
Barring Haryana and Telangana, ruling dispensations managed to control the bypoll narrative elsewhere. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath further consolidated his hold, winning six of the seven Assembly by-election seats at stake.
Chief ministers B S Yediyurappa (Karnataka), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and Hemant Soren’s alliance (Jharkhand) bagged two seats each in their respective states. In Gujarat, the BJP government led by Vijay Rupani won all eight Assembly bypoll seats.
The big surprise came from Telangana as the BJP bagged the Dubbaka Assembly seat with a slender margin. Its nominee M Raghunandan Rao trounced TRS’s Solipeta Sujatha by 1,118 votes.
By wresting the seat, the party got bragging rights for taking its Mission South agenda forward. The BJP’s performance came despite its national leadership staying away from the campaigns, focus as it did on the Bihar Assembly polls instead.
The party’s state leaders demonstrated their dominance over the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, while denying opportunity to the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to make a comeback.
Defector Jyotiraditya Scindia delivered on his promise as the BJP shrugged off a spirited Kamal Nath-led Congress campaign to win 19 of the total 27 Assembly seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Manipur, the BJP’s fortunes rode on imports from the Congress in recent times.
As for the big picture, BJP leaders sought to read in the outcome a vote of confidence of the people in the leadership of the prime minister amid the Covid-19 pandemic.