BJP's saffron wave stops in UP, Bihar bypolls; Results show people's anger, says Rahul Gandhi

In Uttar Pradesh, where Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party went for an alliance with local rival  Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati,  the BJP lost Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath represented for two decades before assuming his present office. SP candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad won the seat almost by 22,000 votes.

Also in Phulpur, which  was once represented by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, SP scripted a victory over BJP t   by more than 59,000 votes.

The BJP had wrested Phulpur Lok Sabha seat  only in 2014. It has been represented thrice by Jawaharlal Nehru, his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit and also former Prime Minister V P Singh.

The streak of nightmare followed the party also in Bihar, where the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who many thought was politically marginalised after being sent to jail in fodder scam case, triumphed over BJP retaining the  Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad Assembly seats.

The only consolation for the  saffron party was in Bihar's Bhabua where it retained the  Assembly seat.

Commenting on the results that created a flutter in the political circle and upped the sagging morale of the opposition after a series of recent electoral drubbings  across the country, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said,   "It is clear from the bypoll results that voters are angry with BJP."

Taking to social media, Gandhi said the people  will vote for the non-BJP candidate who has the strongest chance of winning.  "As far as, Congress is concerned, we are committed to re-building the party in UP, and it does not happen overnight."  

Taking cue from him, former  UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, " if this is the anger of people in areas of and CM (Yogi Adityanath) deputy CM (Keshav Parasad Maurya), you can imagine the anger of the people of the rest of the country."

In Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav  called for stitching a Grand Alliance at the national level on the line of the one formed in the state before the last Assembly elections  to defeat the BJP. He said there was a need for opposition leaders to shed their ego.

“A Grand Alliance is the demand of time, it is the demand of the people. Keep your ego away,” Yadav said. .

Accepting the defeat, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the party will assess the results. "It's a lesson for us and we will learn from it," he said.

For the opposition which has been at the receiving end in the face of an unrelenting saffron wave across the country,  the  results are being keenly watched for pointers to a possible bigger anti-BJP  alliance as game changer before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

On the flip side, BJP's loss in two most crucial seats in UP is being seen as a great setback for the party and its hardliners following the Hindutva agenda before the 2019 elections.