india

Updated: May 25, 2019 12:00 IST

In the winning streak of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh despite formidable Mahagathbandhan of the SP-BSP the party also reversed its embarrassing loss of 2018 bypolls in three Parliamentary constituencies in the state which included chief minister Yogi Adityanath Nath’s bastion – Gorakhpur.

The long list of winning constituencies of the BJP also includes Gorakhpur, Phulpur and the Kairana parliamentary seats. The party had lost these three seats in May 2018 bypolls after BJP formed the government in UP. For this bypoll, the SP, BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh had entered into an alliance. It was victory in the bypoll that gave shape to the 2019 Mahagathbandhan.

From the Gorakhpur constituency, considered to be most prestigious as it is pocket-borough of the chief minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP candidate and Bhojpuri actor-singer Ravindra Shyamnarayam Shukla ‘Ravi Kishan’ defeated Samajwadi Party candidate Rambhual Nishad. The Gorakhpur seat fell vacant after sitting MP Yogi Adityanath was appointed chief minister. This loss was a major setback not only for the BJP but also for the chief minister. In the bypoll, SP candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad had defeated BJP candidate Upendra Shukla.

In fact, it was this loss that formalised the concept of Mahagathbandhan of the SP-BSP for the 17 th lok sabha poll.

From the Phulpur constituency, BJP candidate Keshari Devi Patel defeated Samajwadi Party candidate Pandhari Yadav. This seat fell vacant after sitting BJP MP Keshav Prasad Maurya was made deputy CM and in the bypoll SP candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel had defeated BJP candidate Shailendra Singh.

In Kairana constituency of the Shamli district, BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar defeated sitting MP and Samajwadi Party candidate Tabassum Begum. This seat went for bypoll after senior BJP leader and sitting MP Hukum Singh died.

In the bypoll, Mriganka Singh, daughter of Hukum Singh, lost to Tabassum Hasan, who was then Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate. “Loss of BJP candidates in three bypolls in the state gave shape to the Mahagathbandhan of the SP-BSP. However, the Modi factor proved too strong for the alliance,” said Prof KK Mishra, political science department, BHU. “The alliance failed to transfer its vote to each other and the concept of social engineering failed before the Modi factor,” he added.