8 ECONOMY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS MUMBAI | FRIDAY, 1 JUNE 2018 1 > United opposition triumphs After defeat, BJP now the target of allies, rivals ARCHIS MOHAN chief to convince him to keep prices. over BJP in by-elections New Delhi, 31 May the BJP-Sena alliance intact for In Lucknow, Samajwadi the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too ARCHIS MOHAN retained two seats. In West The by-poll results of four Lok The JD(U)’s loss suggested acknowledged the support of New Delhi, 31 May Bengal, the Trinamool Congress Sabha and 10 assembly seats an erosion in Bihar Chief AAP, along with that of other increased its winning margin in across 11 states have caused Minister Nitish Kumar’s sup- opposition parties, for the he results of four Lok Maheshtala Assembly, with the murmurs of discontent in the port base and increasing accept- Kairana Lok Sabha and Sabha and 10 assembly party crediting the victory to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- ance of the RJD under Tejashwi Noorpur assembly wins. T by-polls, announced on Lok Sabha MP and Chief led National Democratic Yadav. The JD(U) defeat could Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Thursday reinforced the idea of Minister Mamata Banerjee's Alliance. spur desertions of Yadav and Chaudhary also thanked the a united Opposition that parties nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. The results also had leaders Muslim legislators of his party. AAP. have been working on to fight Of the four Lok Sabha by- of the Telugu Desam Party Meanwhile, Andhra Communist Party of India the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and polls that went to polls on (TDP) and Aam Aadmi Party Pradesh Chief Minister N (Marxist) General Secretary sent Bharatiya Janata Party Monday, the BJP could only win (AAP) discover redeeming fea- Chandrababu Naidu said the Sitaram Yechury said the by- strategists back to the drawing one. It had won three of these tures in the Congress. Congress was a better bet than poll results weren’t just about board. The BJP and its allies four seats in 2014. The most cru- The Janata Dal (United), the the BJP at the current juncture. the unity of secular forces. He could win three of the 14 seats. cial of the defeats were in the BJP’s ally in Bihar, which lost He said the TDP fought the anti- said the results also show that The trend, apparent in the Kairana Lok Sabha seat and the the Jokihat assembly seat to the federal Congress governments the BJP vote share had declined results of Uttar Pradesh's Noorpur assembly in Uttar Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv substantially from 2014. Phulpur and Gorakphpur Lok Pradesh. In Noorpur, BJP can- fumed at the increasing fuel Gandhi, but now the situation “It is a big setback to the BJP- Sabha by-polls in March, was RLD’s Tabassum Hasan (left) after winning the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election on Thursday; didate lost to united prices. was much worse. RSS as UP and Bihar gave them reinforced by Thursday's RJD’s Shahnawaz Alam who successfully contested Jokihat assembly by-poll in Bihar PHOTO: PTI Opposition's Samajwadi Party Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Delhi Chief Minister Arvind absolute majority,” he said. results, particularly in the candidate. The BJP had won Thackeray threatened that his Kejriwal, also Aam Aadmi Party The BJP clearly has a prob- Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur not getting a suitable price for Patra attributed the results to to enter the current Lok Sabha. Noorpur in 2017 Uttar Pradesh party would fight all future elec- (AAP) chief, tweeted how peo- lem on its hands. Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats of the state. their produce. The Opposition local issues and said the com- During his campaign, Assembly elections. tions on its own, and accused ple were “missing an educated and Bihar contributed 105 seats The arithmetic of a united had accused the Prime Minister bination of Prime Minister Chaudhary had asked farmers The BJP lost the Bhandara- the BJP of rigging the Palghar PM like Manmohan Singh”. “It to its tally in 2014. It has now Opposition pooling votes of violating the spirit of the mod- Modi and party chief Amit Shah whether they wanted “ganna”, Gondia seat and retained the Lok Sabha by-poll. is dawning on people now. The lost eight Lok Sabha by-polls in trumped the BJP’s hopes of el code of conduct. would help the BJP win the or sugarcane, to be an issue, or Palghar Lok Sabha seat, both in But Maharashtra Chief PM, after all, should be educat- the last four years, including repeating the chemistry that On Thursday, an upbeat 2019 elections. would vote on the recent con- Maharashtra. The Nagaland Lok Minister Devendra Fadnavis ed,” Kejriwal tweeted and three successive defeats in UP the Narendra Modi-led party Opposition insisted that the by- The results brought the BJP's troversy at the Aligarh Muslim Sabha seat was won by the BJPs said he would talk to the Sena attached an article on steep fuel and two in Rajasthan. rode on to win the 2014 Lok poll results reflected “wide- seats tally down to 272 in the University over a photograph of new ally, the ruling People's Sabha polls. spread” anti-incumbency Lok Sabha. The party is now on (Muhammad Ali) “Jinnah”. In Democratic Alliance. The Uttar Pradesh is crucial for against the Modi government the brink of losing its majority 2014, the BJP had swept western Bhandara-Gondia seat was won the BJP in 2019. Its successive at the Centre, and states run by status in the Lower House. Uttar Pradesh in the wake of by the Nationalist Congress Sugarcane turns bitter for BJP defeats in by-polls, barely a year the BJP and its allies, including The results were a vindica- communal riots in Party candidate. after emphatically winning the Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra tion for Yadav and second-gen- Muzaffarnagar, and Chaudhary In Palghar, BJP's Rajendra SANJEEB MUKHERJEE steep hike in electricity rates has Even in the home district Assembly polls, is likely to lead and Meghalaya. eration dynasts who led their said his party's win was a sign Gavit defeated the Shiv Sena New Delhi, 31 May played a role in the BJP defeat in Sugarcane Development and to questions being put to Chief Samajwadi Party leader respective parties to victories in that Jats and Muslims wanted to candidate. Sena chief Uddhav by-polls in Kairana Lok Sabha Sugar Mills Minister Suresh Minister Yogi Adityanath. Akhilesh Yadav, who along with their home states. In the Kairana forget the past. Thackeray alleged the BJP of If the results of two by-polls in and Noorpur Assembly seats. Rana, mills have not paid dues On the eve of the polling on the Congress and Bahujan Lok Sabha constituency, With his father in jail, electoral malpractices. "When western Uttar Pradesh are any “Overall sugarcane dues in of almost ~2.27 billion. Sunday, Prime Minister Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya the BJP won the Palghar Lok indication, then clearly sugar- UP alone has reached over ~135 Across the Kairana Lok Narendra Modi undertook a emerged the architect of the Chaudhary led from the front Janata Dal-led his party in Sabha seat in 2014, the victory cane farmers aren’t happy with billion and unless strong meas- Sabha constituency, there are well-publicised roadshow on Opposition alliance, said peo- to have his party’s Tabassum securing the Jokihat Assembly margin was of 100,000 votes. the ruling Bharatiya Janata ures are taken, the BJP might six major sugar mills. In 2018-19 the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border ple have vented their anger Hassan elected. seat from Janata Dal (United) in Today, they barely managed to Party (BJP). face a tough challenge in the crop year, till the middle of May, and addressed a public rally in against the BJP's divisive poli- She was supported by the Bihar. In Jharkhand, the win by a few thousand votes," Local farmers and experts 2019 general elections,” sugarcane arrears amounting Baghpat, where he reached out tics, fuel price rise, agrarian dis- Congress, SP, BSP, Left parties Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Thackeray said. The Bahujan said the impact of mounting Pushpendra Singh, a prominent to almost ~8 billion had not to the region’s sugarcane farm- tress and joblessness. and others. She also became the Mukti Morcha, supported by the Vikas Aghadi candidate came sugarcane dues in the primari- farmer leader from western UP, been paid to the farmers by the ers. The farmers are upset about BJP spokesperson Sambit first Muslim from Uttar Pradesh Congress and other parties, in a respectable third. ly agrarian belt along with a told Business Standard. six mills..