BSP's dream run continues in UP; two more seats in party's kitty

NEW DELHI: The BSP continued with its impressive run of electoral victories in Uttar Pradesh when it wrested two assembly seats (Swar Tanda and Farrukhabad) from the Samajwadi Party, while the SP’s victory margin dipped drastically in its pocketburrough of Gunnaur, which was bagged by former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the elections held earlier this year. With these victories, the strength of the BSP in the 403-member assembly has gone up to 208, while the Samajwadi Party’s tally has come down to 95.

By-elections for the three assembly seats were held on Friday. While the Gunnaur seat fell vacant because of the resignation of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who chose to retain Bharthana, by-elections for the other two seats were necessitated by the resignations of the victorious SP candidates following their defection to the BSP. Nawab Kazim Ali had represented Swar Tanda and Mr Vijay Singh Farrukhabad.

Mr Vijay Singh could remain in the BSP only for a short span, as he left it soon to join the Congress. The switch-over proved to be costly for him, as he was defeated by BSP nominee Anant Kumar Mishra, who’s the health minister in the Mayawati government, in the by-poll by a margin of over 14,500 votes.

In Swar Tanda, Nawab Kazim Ali won by a margin of 49,000 votes. Mr Shiv Bahadur Saxena suffered the mortification of securing a fewer number of votes than he did earlier this year.

In Gunnaur, the SP had to muster all its strength and resources to beat the challenge thrown by the BSP. While Mr Yadav had won the seat in the elections held earlier this year by a massive margin of 31,647 votes, his nominee Pradeep Yadav saw the gap being reduced by more than half this time round.

The results proved that the BSP’s winning streak in the state remained untouched, and that the social coalition cobbled together by Ms Mayawati continued to deliver handsome electoral dividends. The BJP and the Congress continued to be in doldrums, with the electorate refusing to repose faith in them.

BJP president Rajnath Singh’s tall claim that the result of the election to the Khaga assembly seat (near Fatehpur) proved that his party’s support-base remained intact in the villages has been punctured. decisively. The BJP remains on the margins of the political arena in the state.

Exulting over his party’s victory in Khaga, Mr Rajnath Singh had remarked: ``It is worth noting that in UP merely 15 days after the assembly poll results were declared, the BJP won the Khaga seat by over 8,000 votes, while the BSP was pushed to the third spot. It’s also worth noting that the BJP had never won this seat earlier. In my opinion, this clearly indicates that our support-base does exist in every village; we need to ignite it and expand it further.’’