The BJP in Uttar Pradesh suffered a major political blow on Wednesday when BSP-supported Samajwadi Party candidates wrested the most prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats which went to bypolls on March 11.

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The two crucial Lok Sabha seats were vacated by the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

In Gorakhpur, represented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for five consecutive terms, the BSP-supported Samajwadi Party candidate Praveen Nishad won by a margin of 21961 votes against the BJP nominee Upendra Dutt Shukla.

With the support of the BSP, Nagendra Singh Chauhan of the Samajwadi Party defeated BJP candidate Kaushlendra Chauhan by a huge margin of 59613 votes. Nagendra Singh Chauhan polled a total of 3,47,756 while Kaushlendra could manage only 2,83,183 votes.

The Congress candidates, on the other hand, lost deposits in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats.

Admitting the BJP candidates lost due to over-confidence, a crestfallen Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the party has learned its lessons from the bypoll results. “The BSP and SP struck a political bargain over Rajya Sabha polls to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha polls. We failed to estimate their combined strength and lost due to over-confidence,” pointed Yogi Adityanath.

Besides the "opportunistic alliance", the Chief Minister said that local issues and low turn-out of voters were main reasons behind BJP’s defeat on the two Lok Sabha seats. We have learned our lessons and will review by-poll results to take corrective steps,” said he.

Brimming with glee after causing a major setback to BJP, the Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav thanked the BSP Supremo Mayawati, leaders of RLD, Left, Nishad, and Peace parties and people of Gorakhpur and Phulpur for their support to the party.

“Bypoll results in favour of the Samajwadi Party, supported by BSP and others, have given a message that social justice forces have regrouped and will throw communal forces out of power. Results are an indication what is in store for the BJP in 2019 elections,” pointed Yadav

He commented that people have given a befitting reply to their political arrogance, wrongdoings and anti-people policies.

In a yet another significant development, the SP President Akhilesh Yadav met BSP Supremo Mayawati at her residence at Mall Avenue in Lucknow. Though party sources said that it was a courtesy call by Akhilesh Yadav to thank Mayawati personally for her party's support during by-polls but the two leaders, fresh from victory, talked about extending their alliance to 2019 Lok Sabha polls and including other non-BJP parties, including the Congress and the RLD, to pose a formidable challenge to the BJP. The meeting lasted for half an hour. The BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra and SP General Secretary Azam Khan were also present in the meeting.

Political observers feel that the BJP underestimated the might of the SP-BSP combine’s backward-dalit-Muslim vote-bank after BSP suddenly announced support to the Samajwadi Party candidates in by-polls. Wrong choice of candidates, over-confidence, indifferent attitude of party cadre, poor turnout of voters were some of the reasons which caused the BJP the two most prestigious Lok Sabha seats.

More than the party’s debacle, the defeat has served a major setback to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s political image. In less than a year, he had emerged as top leader among party’s second-rung leadership. The defeat also served as a referendum on his one year rule which the Chief Minister was to celebrate on March 19.  

Riding on the aggressive Hindutva and inclusive development plank, the crushing defeat of party candidate in Gorakhpur has served a major setback to Yogi Adityanath personally. He represented the seat for five consecutive terms.  

Results on the two Lok Sabha seats are also indicative that caste-based politics is back in Uttar Pradesh. The SP-BSP experiment after 25 years is likely to consolidate further when Congress and other non-BJP parties form an alliance ahead of 2019 polls to pose a serious threat to the saffron brigade in Uttar Pradesh.