Bypoll results jolt BJP

India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday suffered a major blow in the legislative assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat states just four months after having swept in parliamentary polls.

BJP lost 13 of the 24 assembly seats held by it in the three states in the bypolls considered yet another test of popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The only solace for BJP on an otherwise gloomy day was its maiden entry in West Bengal assembly as the party's candidate won Dakshin Basirhat seat bordering Bangladesh. The other assembly seat (Chowringhee in central Kolkata) bypoll was won by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.     

The reverses for BJP in the by-elections came after the party's disappointing performance in assembly by-elections in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh states in the last two months.

Out of the total of 32 assembly seats across nine states, where byelections were held on September 13 and for which counting of votes was taken up yesterday, BJP won 10, Congress seven and Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party seven while the rest going to other parties.

In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and electorally crucial state where BJP was on a high after a near-total sweep of the total of 80 Lok Sabha seats, the party suffered a humiliating blow as it lost seven of the 11 seats held by it, including one held by its ally Apna Dal.

Equally crushing was BJP's defeat in the byeelections in Rajasthan where it conceded three of the four seats to Congress which also managed to wrest three of the nine seats in Gujarat.

All the seats in Uttar Pradesh (11), Gujarat (9) and Rajasthan (4) were held by BJP and the bypolls were necessitated after the state legislature members were elected to the Lok Sabha, lower House of Parliament.

Reacting to bypoll results, BJP aid the results in some places were not according to its expectations and people voted on local issues.