Bypoll debacle: Is SP losing sheen in its last year in office?

NEW DELHI: What do results to three assembly byelections in a state with over 400 MLAs indicate? Nothing much, except if the ruling party happens to lose two of these seats in its last year in office. Tuesday’s outcome hints at the sliding popularity of Samajwadi Party in UP.

Team Mulayam Singh Yadav lost to BJP in Muzaffarnagar and to Congress in Deoband in clear verdicts delivered by voters in the bypolls. SP only managed to win Bikapur in Faizabad.

The common thread from the results is that the ruling party has lost sheen, with rivals managing to cobble the social coalition they targeted. The SP failed to show the resilience that it had demonstrated in September 2014 when it won eight of the 11 assembly seats that went to polls just after its Lok Sabha poll debacle.

For BJP, the Muzaffarnagar win is bound to encourage the belief that its strong “Hindutva” campaign has the potential to bear results if followed by effective polarisation on the ground. The district has not cooled down still after the riots three years ago and BJP functionaries have not backed down from the hard line.

The 2014 assembly bypolls, when BJP won only three of the 11 seats, was a major setback as it came after its Lok Sabha triumph and in the wake of a rabid campaign around “love Jihad” carried out by Hindutva mascots like MP Adityanath.




For Congress, the win in Deoband is significant as it drew Muslims and dalits behind its banner as against the ruling SP.

However, the results may not indicate a definitive trend for non-SP parties in view of the absence of BSP from the contest. While the Dalit outfit was decimated in LS polls, it has been working on the ground to win back its dalit base and the assorted social combine that it has traditionally held.