Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s opposition parties, the BJD and the Congress, Monday said the BJP’s defeat in the Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar reflects the mood of the nation, even as the ruling party termed the result a “stray incident”.
As Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor defeated the BJP’s Neeraj Kumar by over 19,000 votes in the Bankipur seat that the saffron party had been winning since 1995, the BJD and the Congress in Odisha attributed the result in the NDA-ruled Bihar to the students’ agitation against exam irregularities.
“The BJP’s defeat in Bihar’s Bankipur bypoll, which was represented by its president Nitin Navin and his family for more than three decades, reflects the mood of the nation,” BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said.
Asserting that the people’s mandate was supreme, he said the BJP should accept the defeat gracefully and introspect.
Senior Congress leader and the party’s former state unit president Jaydev Jena said, “This is not a defeat for a party candidate, but for the prime minister, home minister and the BJP president.”
“This result will have a country-wide impact. There should be no doubt that the BJP is being rejected by people.”
Jena said that the students’ agitation at Delhi and elsewhere had its impact on the bypoll result. “People will not tolerate the BJP anymore. They have been winning elections through vote theft, but could not do so in this bypoll.”
BJP spokesperson Surath Biswal, however, rejected the claim and said that it is a “stray incident”.
“The BJP is a huge party with its governments at the Centre and many states. I do not feel that the bypoll results will have any impact on national politics or on the Central government,” he said.
The BJP leader, however, said his party will certainly analyse the reasons for its defeat in the Bankipur bypoll.
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