Regional parties send clear signal: BJP is not invincible

New Delhi: The BJP’s rout in the crucial bypolls of Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Araria has managed to break the hubris of invincibility around the ruling party, which was created after successive poll wins in state elections. In fact, the one message that has come out of this defeat is that it will be a tough road ahead for the BJP in 2019 if the regional parties come together.

In Uttar Pradesh, which is seen to be the road to victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the SP-BSP combine came together after a similar experiment in 1993 in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. If the slogan “Mile Mulayam, Kanshiram hawa me udgaye Jai Shri Ram” had demolished the BJP then, this time it was the turn of the “Bua-Bhatija”  (Mayawati-Akhilesh) duo to give the BJP a run for its money in the two crucial constituencies of Phulpur and Gorakhpur. It remains to be seen whether the alliance will remain intact or meet the same bitter fate as that of the 1993 one. On the other  
hand, the NDA’s rout in Araria in Bihar saw the regional combination, or Grand Alliance of RJD-Congress and Janata Dal (United), repeating its 2015 performance despite the breaking away of the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U). It also shows the coming of age of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejashvi Yadav, who had recently engineered the defection of Hindustan Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi from the NDA.

The Gorakhpur-Phulpur alliance, which many see as a dry run for the 2019 general election, is also seen by many as an experiment in a broad Opposition alliance. Sources said that instead of all parties coming together before the elections, the idea was to get as many seats as possible in the states and then decide on forming a post-poll alliance to keep the BJP out at the Centre.

After the SP’s phenomenal performance in Uttar Pradesh, party chief Akhilesh Yadav thanked Ms Mayawati’s for her party’s support, and hinted that the Yogi Adityanath government may perhaps not have come to power in 2017 if his party had partnered with the BSP.

It might be recalled that the Samajwadi Party had fought the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress in 2017, an alliance that was a disaster and reduced the SP, which contested nearly 300 seats, to just 47 seats and the Congress to seven seats.

Since then, Mr Yadav had kept his distance from the Grand Old Party and from Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Interestingly, the Congress had this time fought both seats but both the candidates were Brahmins, which the party later claimed was done deliberately to cut away the BJP voteshare and help the SP-BSP alliance.

The results are also likely to give a big boost to the efforts to form a Federal Front, or Third Front. Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, reacting to the results, said on Wednesday: “The begining of the end (for the BJP) has started.”