The Congress received a leg-up in the assembly bypolls across states as the grand old party registered two neat victories in Karnataka, one in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and significantly increased its vote share in AAP-dominated Delhi.
In Congress-ruled Karnataka, party nominees Kalale N Keshavamurthy and Geetha Mahadevaprasad won both the Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly seats despite an aggressive campaigning by state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa, who was quick to concede defeat. The bypolls were described by Yeddyurappa as a semi-final ahead of the assembly elections next year.
Another reason for the Congress managers to be happy with the Karnataka bypolls was that party veteran S M Krishna, who recently joined the BJP and campaigned for the saffron party, could not swing the votes of his influential Vokkaliga community to the saffron party.
In a way, the Karnataka win strengthened the position of chief minister Siddaramaiah, against whom the BJP has been running a propaganda campaign for the last two years.
A senior state leader termed it a win of inclusive politics against BJP's divisive agenda.
In BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh, Congress nominee Hemant Katare defeated saffron party's Arvind Singh Bhadoria by a narrow margin of 857 votes in the Ater assembly seat. Last week, an Electronic Voting Machine demonstration in the constituency had showed that all votes were going only to the BJP leading to a furore in the parliament as a united Opposition targeted the centre and the poll panel.
But what seemed to have excited Congress managers the most is the Rajouri Garden seat in Delhi where the party significantly increased its vote share from just 12 percent last year to 38 percent.
Though BJP's Manjinder Singh Sirsa won the Rajouri Garden seat, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken was quick to congratulate party workers for gaining ground and pushing down ruling Aam Aadmi Party to the third spot. The bypoll result is being seen by the Congress as a good omen weeks ahead of the crucial Delhi municipal elections.
Congress insiders said the grand old party was clearly on a comeback trail in the national capital after it was reduced to just 8 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi in 2013 polls and was wiped out in 2015 polls.
In another development in Dholpur seat in Rajasthan, BJP nominee Shobha Rani won by 40,000 votes against Congress candidate Banwari Lal Sharma despite hectic campaigning by state unit chief Sachin Pilot. A miffed Pilot alleged misuse of government machinery by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje saying the Congress lost to the administration.
The Congress has been lying low after losing to the BJP in four of the five assembly states. The bypoll results may push the grand old party to get up and move ahead, said sources.
