Modi hails Maha, Haryana verdict as victory of development agenda; Oppn. dubs it ‘moral defeat’ for BJP

New Delhi, Oct. 24 (PTI): The BJP on Thursday hailed the verdict in the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls as a victory of its development agenda, while the opposition parties termed the outcome as a “moral defeat” for the saffron party, claiming that “jingoism does not work when people are living in misery”.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders gave messages of victory and thanked people of both the states, where the party is set to form the government albeit with a reduced majority, opposition party leaders criticised these claims of victory, saying there is a significant drop in BJP’s vote percentage merely four months after its Lok Sabha election win.

In Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition was on course to retain power while BJP-ruled Haryana appeared headed for a hung assembly with JJP chief Dushyant Chautala emerging as a kingmaker.

In his first reaction after the poll verdict, Modi tweeted, “I thank the people of Haryana for blessing us. We will continue to work with the same zeal and dedication for the state’s progress.”

In another tweet, the Prime Minister said, “People of Maharashtra have blessed the NDA with immense affection. We are humbled to have got the people’s support yet again. Our work towards Maharashtra’s progress continues!”

Later addressing party workers at the BJP headquarters here, Modi said the people of these two states have reposed their trust in chief ministers, and asserted that they will work even harder in the next five years to serve them.

He described the the party’s performance in Haryana, where it failed to win a majority, as “unprecedented” and noted that its vote share had gone up to 36 per cent in these assembly polls from 33 per cent in 2014.

When governments often lose power after five years, it is remarkable that BJP dispensations in Maharashtra and Haryana have been given a fresh mandate for five years, he said.

Asserting that the poll verdict a “moral defeat” of the BJP and what it stands for, Congress’ senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said BJP chief Amit Shah’s claim of victory in Haryana does not hold as the party is short of a majority and there is a significant drop in its vote percentage merely four months after the Lok Sabha election victory.

Claiming that the verdict of Haryana is against the BJP, he said all parties opposing the BJP must come together as has been appealed by former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

“We accept the verdict of the people with humility. This verdict is a moral defeat for the BJP and what they stand for,” he told reporters at a press conference.

In Haryana, the Congress, which failed to bag even one seat in the Lok Sabha polls, won or was ahead in 31 of the 90 seats at stake compared to its previous tally of 15. The BJP, which had 47 seats in the outgoing 90-member house, won or was ahead in 40 seats. The half-way mark is 46.

The verdict came as a surprise as most of the exit polls predicted a significantly higher tally for the BJP in the two states.

Reacting to the Assembly election results, Left parties said jingoism does not work when people are living in misery.

“The results, not just in these two states but also in bypolls in Gujarat, Bihar and Kerala show that communal jingoism does not work at a time when the people are in misery over lack of jobs and economic slowdown,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

CPI general secretary D Raja said that the election results in the two states was a clear indication that this was the beginning of the “fall of the BJP”.

BJP president Amit Shah indicated that his party will stake claim to form the next government in Haryana after the assembly election results threw up a hung verdict.

“The (Manohar Lal) Khattar government in Haryana has made every effort for people’s welfare under the central leadership of (Narendra) Modi. I thank people for making the BJP the single-largest party and giving it another opportunity to serve them,” Shah said in a tweet.

He congratulated Chief Minister Khattar and state party chief Subhash Barala.

Shah also thanked voters in Maharashtra for “reposing their faith” in BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who is in ED custody in a corruption case, said in a tweet that party workers must believe that the BJP can be defeated in elections as calm and quiet patriotism can defeat muscular nationalism.

By-polls: BJP, allies come first; AIMIM gains toehold in Bihar

The BJP and its allies on Thursday won 26 of the 51 assembly seats at stake in the bypolls across 18 states and the Congress emerged victorious in 12 constituencies while Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM tasted its maiden electoral success in Bihar.

In bye-elections to two Lok Sabha seats, Prince Raj of the Lok Jan Shakti Party won in Samastipur (SC) in Bihar defeating Ashok Kumar of the Congress, while Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil of the NCP emerged victorious in Maharashtra’s Satara constituency over Udyanraje Pratapsinhmaharaj Bhonsle of the BJP.

The Samajwadi Party turned out to be a major gainer in Uttar Pradesh, wresting a seat each from the ruling BJP and the BSP, while the NDA got eight, one less than it held.

The SP wrested Zaidpur seat from the BJP and Jalalpur seat from the BSP, while retaining Rampur. The BJP won seven seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) bagged one.

The BJP, which yielded Zaidpur to the SP, retained Balha, Gangoh, Manikpur, Ghosi, Iglas, Lucknow Cantt and Govindnagar, while Apna Dal (S) retained Pratapgarh.

Of the five seats whereby-polls were held, four were held by BJP ally the JD(U) and one by the Congress.

Among the states ruled by the BJP and its allies, by-polls were held for the maximum 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh, followed by six in Gujarat, five in Bihar, four in Assam and two each in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The other states where by-polls were held are Punjab (4 seats), Kerala (5 seats), Sikkim (3 seats), Rajasthan (2 seats) and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Meghalaya and Telangana.

The BJP and its allies held nearly 30 of these assembly seats, while the Congress had won 12 and the rest were with regional parties.

In a morale booster after the Lok Sabha poll drubbing months ago, the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu wrested two seats from arch-rival DMK and its ally Congress. AIADMK won by impressive margins in Vikravandi and Nanguneri constituencies.

In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF tasted defeat at the hands of the ruling LDF headed by the CPI-M in its strongholds of Vattiyoorkavu and Konni, while it retained two seats and won from the Marxist bastion of Aroor.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V K Prasanth won from Vattiyoorkavu by a margin of over 14,465 votes against his nearest Congress rival K Mohankumar.

Another UDF bastion, Konni, went to the LDF kitty with its candidate K U Jenish Kumar winning by 9,953 votes defeating P Mohanraj (Cong). However, the LDF tasted defeat at Aroor, a CPI(M) stronghold where UDF’s Shanimol Usman, who had unsuccessfully contested the April Lok Sabha poll from Alappuzha, won with a margin of 2079 votes.

Usman defeated her nearest rival Manu C Pulickal of the LDF by a margin of 2,079 votes.

The UDF won the Manjeshwaram seat where M C Kamaruddin (IUML) won by a margin of 7,923 votes against BJP’s Raveesh Thanthri Kuntar.

It retained the Ernakulam seat as its candidate T J Vinod, deputy Mayor of Kochi corporation, defeated his nearest rival advocate Manu Roy, the LDF-Independent candidate by over 3,750 votes. The defeat at Vatiyoorkavu and Konni comes as a rude shock for the UDF which had won 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the Lok Sabha polls in May.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress wrested back its traditional Jhabua assembly seat from the BJP. Congress candidate and former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria won by a margin of over 27,804 votes, defeating BJP’s Bhanu Bhuria.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan increased its tally in the state assembly by winning the by-poll to Mandawa seat while MP Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party retained the Khinwsar seat.

Congress’s Rita Chaudhary won from Mandawa by a margin of 33,704 votes while RLP candidate Narayan Beniwal won Khinwsar by 4,630 votes.

The ruling Congress consolidated its position in Punjab winning three assembly segments while opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won one seat, where bypolls were held.

Raminder Awla defeated SAD nominee Raj Singh Dibipura by 16,633 votes from Jalalabad, considered an Akali bastion.

In Phagwara, which fell vacant after sitting BJP MLA Som Parkash was elected to the Lok Sabha, Congress candidate and former IAS officer Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal defeated BJP nominee Rajesh Bagha by a margin of 26,116 votes. Congress’s Indu Bala won from Mukerian by defeating BJP’s Jangi Lal Mahajan by a margin of 3,440 votes.

But the ruling party suffered a setback as SAD’s Manpreet Singh Ayali defeated its nominee Sandeep Singh Sandhu by a margin of 14,672 votes in Dakha. The ruling TRS in Telangana won the Huzurnagar seat with its nominee S Saidi Reddy defeating Congress rival N Padmavati Reddy.

The BJP in Assam won three seats with its candidates Bijoy Malakar (Ratabari), Rajen Borthakur (Rangapara) and Nabanita Handique (Sonari) defeating their respective Congress opponents. All India United Democratic Front’s Rafiqul Islam prevailed over Congress’s Shamsul Hoque in Jania. In Himachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP retained both the Dharamshala and Pachhad seats. In Pachhad, Reena Kashyap defeated her nearest rival, former minister Gangu Ram Musafir of the Congress, by a margin of 2,742 votes.

Vishal Nehria defeated Independent Rakesh Kumar by a margin of 6,758 votes in Dharamshala.

In Puducherry, the ruling Congress retained the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly seat with its nominee A John Kumar defeating his nearest AINRC rival S Bhuvaneswarane by a margin of 7,170 votes.

The ruling Congress won the by-poll from the Naxal-affected Chitrakot constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, in Chhattisgarh with Rajman Benzam defeating Lachhuram Kashyap of the BJP by a margin of 17,862 votes.

BJD candidate Rita Sahu won the Bijepur Assembly seat in Odisha defeating Sanat Gartia of the BJP by 97,990 votes, which is the highest-ever margin in the history of the state’s assembly polls.

Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang aka PS Golay won the bypoll to the Poklok Kamrang Assembly seat by 8,953 votes. The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) founder defeated his nearest rival Moses Rai of the Sikkim Democratic Front.

United Democratic Party candidate Balajied Kupar Synrem won the by-poll to Shella constituency in Meghalaya by over 6000 votes. The bye-election was necessitated due to the death of UDP president Donkupar Roy, who had represented the seat for a record seven times, earlier this year. Synrem is Donkupar Roy’s son.

In Arunachal Pradesh, Independent candidate Chakat Aboh, wife of National People’s Party (NPP) leader Tirong Aboh who was shot dead in May, emerged victorious defeating another independent nominee Azet Homtok by 1,887 votes.

The ruling BJP and the Congress shared the spoils in Gujarat winning three seats each. OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who switched sides from the Congress to the BJP, lost from Radhanpur by a margin of 3,807 votes to Congress’s Raghubhai Desai.

Congress candidate Jashu Patel defeated BJP’s Dhavalsinh Zala in Bayad, while in Tharad, Congress nominee Gulabsinh Rajput prevailed over BJP’s Jivraj Patel.