BJP confident of win in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Undeterred by setbacks in the recent byelections in some states, the BJP is confident of retaining the Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, where the bypolls are due.

However, the Congress feels the recent bypoll results were an indication of the "changing political scenario".

The byelection in Bhandara-Gondia is due as its sitting BJP MP, Nana Patole, resigned from the seat late last year and joined the Congress.

The bypoll in Palghar is necessitated due to the death of its sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanga in January this year.

Also, following the death of senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam, there is a vacancy in his Palus-Kadegaon Assembly seat in Sangli district.

The dates of these bypolls are yet to be announced.

Notably, in a setback to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party recently lost the bypolls to all three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.

Last month, the Congress thumped the ruling BJP in Rajasthan, clinching the two Lok Sabha and one state Assembly seats in the bypolls. It also retained two Assembly seats in by-elections in MP, though with reduced victory margins.

"Issues in different states may be different, but the results indicate that people were unanimous in their judgement that the BJP is anti-poor and failed to fulfil its promise of tackling unemployment and assurances made to the poor and farmers," Maharashtra Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant said.

"There is widespread anger against the BJP, and results of the by-elections in Maharashtra, whenever they are held, will not be any different," he told PTI.

However, state BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari said the reasons for defeat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were different.

In MP, the Assembly seats were retained by the Congress though with reduced winning margins, Bhandari said.

In Rajasthan, the Congress wrested two Lok Sabha seats from the BJP, while in Uttar Pradesh, the party suffered a jolt, he admitted.

"The UP chief minister (Yogi Adityanath) noted that the loss was due to over-confidence and complacency," he said. Referring to Maharashtra, he said that in Bhandara- Gondia, the BJP has maximum numbers in zilla parishads and panchayat samitis.