Below-par show by BJP in bypolls a fillip for Opposition

THE Opposition, whose INDIA bloc is in disarray, finally has a reason to smile. The June 19 Assembly byelections have witnessed an underwhelming show by the BJP, which managed to win only one of the five seats on offer in four states. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won two seats (one each in Punjab and Gujarat), while the Congress and the Trinamool Congress bagged one apiece. The BJP will be particularly disappointed that it didn’t win the Visavadar seat in Gujarat, the state where it has been in power without a break for almost three decades. The saffron party fancied its chances after the sitting AAP legislator jumped ship. However, AAP recovered from the setback and upstaged the BJP. The bypoll win is no fluke as Arvind Kejriwal’s party had clinched five seats in the 2022 Assembly polls to gain a foothold in the BJP-ruled state.

Assembly byelections are usually won by the ruling party in the state concerned. The results in Ludhiana West (Punjab) and Kaliganj (West Bengal) have brought joy and relief to AAP and the Trinamool Congress, respectively. However, Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by the CPM, has a lot to be worried about, with less than a year to go for the Assembly polls. The Congress-helmed alliance has wrested the Nilambur seat from the LDF. The win is significant in the backdrop of infighting in the Kerala Congress. Shashi Tharoor, the party’s high-profile MP from Thiruvananthapuram, claimed on polling day that he had not been invited to campaign in Nilambur. But the party said he was listed among its star campaigners. Tharoor’s differences with the party top brass were evident recently when he headed a multi-party delegation for the Op Sindoor global outreach. How the Congress handles him will have a bearing on its mission of regaining power in the southern state.

The bypoll debacle in Kerala and West Bengal must have hurt the BJP, which desperately wants to do well in these “final frontier” states. But it would be naïve to underestimate the party, which has a knack for overcoming all odds.

Editorials