Chennai/Hyderabad: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a new challenge in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh with opposition unity efforts crystallizing ahead of bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats later this month.
The key problem for the BJP is that all three seats—Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra and Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh—were won by the BJP in the 2014 general elections when there was no such alliance between the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra on the one hand and the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in UP on the other.
“BJP has to start preparing for such challenges when several parties come together to contest against a BJP candidate. Kairana will be crucial because we have got time to prepare after the recent defeats in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, we will be better prepared to contest against SP-BSP together,” said a senior BJP leader from Lucknow.
The election in Kairana is expected to be particularly interesting as the BJP is up against the combined force of SP, BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). In the general elections, the BJP got 565,000 votes while the combined votes polled by the opposition parties was 532,000.
In Maharashtra, the bypolls come in the wake of growing problems in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with alliance partner Shiv Sena deciding to go it alone in the 2019 general and assembly elections.
“The verdict would not just be a comment on the state government and performance of government but it would also be a test for the Union government. It will be a challenge,” said a BJP leader from Maharashtra.
For the two Lok Sabha bypolls in Maharashtra, top leaders of the party are holding talks and according to senior leaders from both the parties, the seat sharing details are being decided upon. Earlier this year, state leaders from both Congress and NCP had announced that going forward all the bypolls in Maharashtra would be contested by both the parties together.
“We are very hopeful that both the parties will contest the bypolls together. Talks are going on and seat arrangement should be announced soon,” a senior parliamentarian from NCP said requesting anonymity.
“Our party has always maintained that we are open to aligning with like minded parties to counter the BJP. NCP has been our old alliance partner and we are holding discussions over jointly contesting the upcoming bypolls,” a Congress leader from the state said requesting anonymity.
Last week, the Election Commission said polling will take place on 28 May and counting on 31 May.