(LiveMint)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) suffered a rude electoral shock in the three Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar. More worryingly for the BJP is the sub-text of the verdict in UP. It was fashioned on an alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the two principal opposition parties in the state; implicitly suggesting a political realignment is underway ahead of the 2019 general election.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP lost the Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the two Lok Sabha seats which were held by chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively.A similar setback was witnessed in Bihar’s Araria Lok Sabha bypoll where the BJP candidate lost to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The by-election is important because it is the first since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), or JDU, returned to NDA fold in July last year.
