Agencies/New Delhi
India’s ruling Congress and its ally Trinamool Congress as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) yesterday scored huge wins in by-elections across seven states, dealing major blows to the communists, the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress, which dramatically won the Lok Sabha battle in May, humbled the Samajwadi Party in the Firozabad parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh where its nominee Raj Babbar defeated Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The actor-turned-politician’s victory took the Congress strength in the 545-seat Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliamnent, to 207.
And in a clear signal that the political ground was shifting in Uttar Pradesh, candidates of the Congress, which has been out of power in the country’s most populous state for two long decades, finished second in three of the 11 assembly seats that went to the polls on Saturday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s BSP, which finished a poor third in the last Lok Sabha election, bagged nine seats. The Congress and an independent won one seat each. The Samajwadi Party and the BJP drew a humiliating blank.
A total of one Lok Sabha and 31 assembly seats voted on Saturday.
The communists lost key seats in two of their heartland states, weakening them further and paving the way for the Congress government to speed up reforms.
In the eastern state of West Bengal, ruled by the world’s longest-serving democratically elected communist government, the Trinamul Congress won seven of 10 by-elections. The Congress won two.
In southern Kerala, the Congress won by-elections held in all three seats, defeating the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“The weakening of the left will make it easier for the Congress-led government in New Delhi to carry out its economic reforms,” said Abhirup Sarkar, an economist with the Indian Statistical Institute. “The job becomes easier for the government.”
The communists provided crucial support for the earlier Congress-led federal government from outside, allowing stakes sales in some state-run firms but blocking reforms in the insurance, pension and banking sectors.
They withdraw support last year over a civilian nuclear deal signed with the US.
In this year’s April/May parliamentary polls, the communists won just 24 parliamentary seats, down from 60 earlier.
Experts said an aggressive land acquisition drive for industry in West Bengal has seen the CPM alienate rural voters - the backbone of its support for decades - and send them into the folds of the opposition Trinamul Congress.
In Kerala, party infighting led to the downfall of the left.
West Bengal, which has been ruled by the communists since 1977, is going to the polls in 2011 to elect a new 294-member assembly and could well lose the elections, experts say.
As the Congress and Trinamul activists celebrated in Kolkata and New Delhi, shouting slogans and beating drums, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh asserted his party was again becoming a major player in Uttar Pradesh.
“Now the contest will be between the BSP and the Congress in the coming elections,” he said.
Although the Congress won only one assembly seat each in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, it grabbed eight of the 10 seats on offer in five other states. It won one seat each in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, both seats in Assam and all three seats in CPM-ruled Kerala. The Congress snatched from the BJP the only seat that went to the polls in Chhattisgarh.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress sprang a surprise in Lucknow (West). Its candidate Shyam Kishore Shukla defeated BJP’s Amit Puri, a nominee of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The Congress had a lot to cheer in Kerala, where it swept all three assembly seats, shattering the ruling Left Democratic Front’s record of never losing a by-election while in power.
In Kannur, former Marxist MP A P Abdulla Kutty defeated M V Jayarajan of the CPM. In Ernakulam, Dominic Presentation defeated CPM’s P N Seenulal, and A A Shukur defeated G Krishnaprasad of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Alappuzha.
In Chhattisgarh, the ruling BJP suffered a shocking loss with Congress candidate Bhajan Singh Nirankari defeating Jageshwar Sahu.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress and the BJP shared the spoils, winning one seat each. Congress’ Sujan Singh Pathania won from Jawali by 5,249 votes, whereas the BJP’s Khushi Ram Balnatah won from Rohru by a margin of 8,473 votes. Rohru was known as a stronghold of Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, a three-time chief minister, and the BJP won it for the first time.
In Rajasthan too, the Congress and the BJP won one seat each. The BJP’s Ramesh Chand won from Todabhim, defeating Shivdayal Meena (Congress) by 8,200 votes. Basanti Meena of the Congress bagged the Salumber seat, overcoming Amrat Lal of the BJP by over 3,000 votes.
The Congress grabbed both seats in Assam. Wajed Ali Choudhury won from South Salmara, defeating the Asom United Democratic Front candidate Abdur Rahman Ajmal. In Dhekiajuli, in northern Assam, Bhimananda Tanti defeated Asom Gana Parishad’s (AGP) Shib Charan Sahu.
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