By Arun Srivastava
PM Narendra Modi ridiculing the Congress for failing to secure a single seat despite the elections being conducted through ballot papers, reminisces famous adage a cat frustrated and ashamed of having failed to catch its prey scratches a nearby pillar. In the midst of the announcement of the results for Legislative Council (MLC) elections across 28 seats in states Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and also in Karnataka, Modi taunted Congress for failing to win a single seat in four major states. Modi through his hasty comment made a fool of himself because, Congress might not win, but the INDIA bloc parties won and gave BJP a jolt in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The remark became a major talking point in political circle for the reason that Congress and opposition factions have run an intensive “anti-EVM” campaign and have alleged of “vote chori” (vote theft). Modi used these results to argue that Congress’s anti-EVM narrative is merely an excuse to hide a lack of actual ground-level public support. Amit Shah joined the mockery by sharing a satirical meme on social media depicting a sweating ballot box with a placard saying, “Ballot Box, resign!”
In UP which the BJP claims to have best governance and a state free of Mafia, the party lost five out of eleven seats to the Samajwadi Party (SP) which defeated the BJP from the prestigious Graduates’ constituency of Varanasi (Modi’s Lok Sabha seat) and also won in Lucknow. In Maharashtra, the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) retained the Nagpur Graduates’ seat. Nagpur is the hometown of senior BJP leaders and the home of the RSS headquarters, making this loss a significant psychological blow. Much against the remarks of Modi, use of paper ballots in these elections also fuelled opposition narratives questioning the BJP’s invincibility when EVMs are not used.
Of course the Congress lost all the four seats in Karnataka, BJP retained three constituencies (North-East Teachers, South-East Graduates, and West Graduates), while its ally, JD(S), wrested the Bengaluru Teachers constituency from the Congress. No doubt BJP victory is a disapproval to the politics of chief minister D K Shivkumar. Ignoring the loyal Congress leaders, the party bosses nominated Puttanna who had defected to the BJP in 2020 and then came back to the Congress in 2023. His return to change sides alienated part of his traditional support base. Both Puttanna and A.P. Ranganath, the victorious BJP candidate, belong to the influential Vokkaliga community. They split the vote bank that the Congress hoped to lock down in the capital region.
Political analysts and party insiders attribute this clean sweep to a combination of internal strategic failures within Congress. Puttanna got defeated notwithstanding Shivakumar delegating 19 state ministers to oversee 133 assembly segments under these four constituencies. Major reason for Congress losing both teachers’ constituencies was the state government’s failure to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). This created deep-seated resentment among the government teachers and staff who make up the primary electorate for these specific seats. The BJP and its parent organization, the RSS, executed a calculated, highly targeted ground strategy.
In Bihar, BJP having its own government was sure of winning all the four seats it contested but faced serious set-back and managed to win one seat nevertheless it claimed an independent winner as its candidate. The BJP candidate Nawal Kishore Yadav who has been continuously winning the Patna seat for nearly three decades had contested as independent candidate. As he was close to BJP, the party claimed him as its candidate.
However, he did not contest as an independent. He contested the election as the BJP candidate from the Patna Teachers’ constituency and lost to Dr Sanjeev Kumar, RJD candidate. This is for the first time RJD won Patna seat and with this RJD managed to win two seats. The RJD secured the Patna Teachers’ and Darbhanga Graduates’ constituencies. Prashant Kishor’s newly formed Jan Suraaj Party won the Darbhanga Teachers’ seat. An independent which won with JSP support shifted to BJP, a day after the results were announced.
Paradoxical indeed. While at Ram Lila Maidan in Delhi, lakhs of people at the call of INDIA bloc, had converged demanding fair and transparent election and halt vote chori, top leaders of Bihar BJP were busy giving a shape to Operation Lotus. The legislatures who were at their target have been the newly elected members of Legislative Council Rahul Raj and Bansidhar Brajbasi, who got elected as independent candidates. Both had defeated JD(U) candidates Anand Pushkar and Abhishek Jha.
Brajbasi was originally a Jana Suraj Party candidate. But after winning the election he joined BJP. His explanation was simply rhetoric and lacked conviction: “joining BJP to effectively address the grievances and issues faced by teachers”. Nonetheless the Jan Suraj Party had demanded the cancellation of his MLC membership. It argued that under the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law), an independent candidate who joins a political party after winning should face disqualification.
Election results for eight teacher and graduate constituencies from Bihar clearly state that the BJP “lost” the overall election. With a BJP government, and its chief minister enjoying the patronage of Amit Shah, failed to reach out to the educated middle class voters, assuage their hurt feelings, and assure them to provide a peoples’ governance. On the contrary the INDIA bloc which was virtually rejected by the voters of state managed to win at least three seats. The worst sufferer has been JD(U). It contested four seats but managed to win only one seat.
Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party made its official electoral debut by winning the Darbhanga Teachers’ seat. This introduces a new variable into Bihar’s traditionally bipolar or tripolar political landscape, challenging the consolidation of votes that the BJP and JD(U) rely upon. This symbolizes the middle class and new middle class voters who till recently were ardent supporter of BJP, shifting their political allegiance.
Uttar Pradesh’s council election results have generated intense political debate regarding their potential impact on the upcoming 2027 UP Assembly elections. Results make it explicit that the so called visionary BJP chief minister of the state stands isolated and has no connect with the people. BJP winning 6 out of the 11 seats and four being bagged by Samajwadi Party underline that in UP too the middle class is alienated from BJP. SP candidates won both the Graduates’ and Teachers’ seats in Varanasi—the parliamentary constituency of Modi and wrested the prestigious Lucknow Graduates’ seat from the sitting BJP MLC and captured the Agra Teachers’ seat. SP chief labelled the BJP’s performance in Varanasi a “flop show,” and framed the victory as a direct verdict against the ruling government’s education, employment, and youth policies.
Coinciding with the election, Amit Shah had dismissed the SP’s momentum, asserting that the BJP government remains unshakeable “like Angad’s foot” and vowing a third consecutive term for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. MLC electorates represent a very specific demographic (teachers and graduates), whereas a general assembly election engages the entire public over issues like law and order, infrastructure, and welfare schemes. However, the SP’s breakthrough in Varanasi and Lucknow acts as a significant morale booster for the opposition, showing that the BJP’s grassroots machinery faces highly competitive pushback.
This result is a serious rebuff to the most defining motif of Adityanath’s governance, the bulldozer or demolition Raj which is better understood as a part of the broader agenda to reclaim “lost” Hindu heritage. The victory of the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates here indicates that the opposition INDIA bloc is gaining ground at the grassroots level. Similarly, the BJP’s loss in Bihar reflects successful opposition mobilization.
While victory of Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjari from Nagpur, which has been a traditional stronghold of the saffron party, is a rebuff to Modi, it also at the same underscores frustration of the educated urban middle class towards RSS and also negating its politics of Hindutva. Being the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who had campaigned extensively for BJP candidate the defeat ought to be seen as negation of politics of polarisation and hatred of RSS. With the Congress nominee’s victory, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has won three of the five MLC seats and the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti alliance got two seats. (IPA Service)
