What Do the 2021 Bypoll Results Signal for the Bharatiya Janata Party?

It was a bittersweet day for the Bharatiya Janata Party as the results of the bypolls held in 29 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats were out on Tuesday, 2 November.

The saffron party and its allies made a clean sweep in the northeast, winning all nine seats, which went to poll in Assam, Mizoram, and Meghalaya and won the Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa. But it was the surprise blow by the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, which became a major setback for the BJP.

In the BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh, the GOP wrested the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and the Assembly seats of Jubbal. It also retained the Arki and Fatehpur Assembly seats. With the state going to polls next year, the loss is significant since it has now triggered the speculation whether the BJP will replace the incumbent CM Jairam Thakur.

And in Rajasthan, the Congress won both seats-Dhariawad and Vallabh Nagar with comfortable margins, while the BJP was unable to make a dent and slid further down in the vote share ladder.

To further rub salt in BJP’s wounds, the victory parade of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal continued as it snatched away all four seats that went to poll with average margins of 75 percent. This results in the TMC’s strength in the 294-member Bengal Assembly rising to 219.

Along with these setbacks, the BJP also lost the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat to the Shiv Sena, making this the Sena’s first Lok Sabha victory outside of Maharashtra.

So what caused this major rollback of votes for the BJP? Is this a warning signal for the ruling party before the upcoming polls ? And looking ahead, how will this affect the 2024 polls?

Host and Producer: Himmat Shaligram

Guest: Aditya Menon, The Quint’s Political Editor. Tune in!

Editor: Shelly Walia

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