Uttarakhand Bypoll Result: In Badrinath Defeat, Two Lessons For The BJP

Uttarakhand Bypoll Results 2024: Two seats of Uttarakhand went to the bypolls on July 10 - Badrinath and Manglaur. The Congress had won the Badrinath seat during the 2022 assembly elections while the BSP's Sarwat Kareem Ansari had bagged the Manglaur seat. Badrinath went to the bypolls due to the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari who joined the BJP and contested the bypolls on the saffron party ticket. On the other hand, the Manglaur seat went to the bypolls due to the demise of Sarwat Kareem Ansari. The Congress has managed not only to retain the Badrinath seat but also won the Manglaur seat, handing the ruling BJP a crushing defeat in the bypolls. 

If you look at the 2022 general assembly elections, then BJP candidate from Badrinath Mahendra Bhatt had polled 30595 votes while Bhandari had got 32661 votes on Congress ticket. Since Bhandari quit Congress and joined the BJP, the saffron party fielded him from the seat again while Congress fielded Lakhoat Singh Butola. In the bypoll results announced today, Bhandari got 22,937 votes while Butola polled 28,161 votes, winning the bypoll by a margin of 5,224 votes. While bypolls generally witness low voter turnout, the BJP's votes dipped by 7,658 while that of Congress was down by 4,500. 

Lessons For BJP

The bypoll defeat has two important lessons for the BJP - one related to the imported leaders and the second about its loyal party workers. The BJP has been betting big on other party's rebel MLAs/MPs in the polls including that of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Most of the time, the rebel MLAs/MPs from other parties lose the bypoll when contesting on the BJP ticket. Such imported candidates have barely helped the BJP. 

Second, when such candidates are given a ticket, it means that the loyal party workers get sidelines in the poll. This sends out a wrong message to the party workers who lose the zeal to work on the ground and thus, the vote share dips. Discontent brews within the party workers when outsiders get a ticket. The BJP has no dearth of political leaders and party workers and instead of betting on rebel candidates of other parties, the saffron party should focus on strengthening its local leadership and reward loyal party workers.