BJP loses Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat, TRS retains Warangal

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of BJP’s defeat in Bihar, the Congress on Tuesday wrested the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh from the saffron party, which the Grand Old party has lost only thrice — 1971, 1977 and 2014 — in its entire electoral history. In Telangana, the ruling TRS retained the Warangal seat. Ratlam-Jhabua is the first Lok Sabha seat the BJP has lost after coming to power in 2014, riding on a ‘Modi wave.’

"It has been a traditional Congress stronghold which went out of the hands of grand old party only twice at the peak of anti-Congress waves in 1977 and 2014(The Congress had lost the Ratlam seat in 1971 too). Not much should be read into BJP’s defeat in Ratlam-Jhabua bypolls," a senior BJP leader who campaigned there during the by-poll said. The leader added that the BJP won a by-poll to Dewas assembly segment in the same Malwa region to buttress his argument.

The BJP did not benefit from the sympathy factor despite fielding Nirmala Bhuria, the daughter of Dileep Singh Bhuria, whose death necessitated the by-poll. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had campaigned extensively to help his party win the seat but Congress’ former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria’s won the seat by a margin of 88,832 votes. With this victory, Congress’ tally in Lok Sabha has gone up to 45, while ruling party’s numbers has slipped to 281 (including the Speaker).

TRS’ Pasunoori Dayakar won the Telangana by a massive margin of nearly 4.6 lakh votes to retain the seat for the party. Both Congress and combined candidate of BJP-TDP could garner only less than 1.5 lakhs, each, in the by-poll.

BJP, however, received good news from Manipur winning the Thangmeiband and Thongju seats and opening its account in the state assembly. BJP had fielded Kh Joykishan Singh and Th Biswajit Singh from Thangmeiband and Thongju, respectively.