Another jolt in UP: BJP loses Kairana to SP after 18 years

The bypoll in Shamli’s Kairana Assembly seat was held after BJP leader Hukum Singh vacated it after his win from Kairana parliamentary constituency earlier this year where, incidentally, he had defeated Nahid Hasan.

Hukum Singh had been elected from Kairana in 1996, 2002, 2007 and 2012 state Assembly elections. His election to Lok Sabha paved the way for his relative, Anil, when BJP announced the latter as the party’s candidate, in contrast to its decision during the bypolls last month when the party had declined tickets to relatives of several MPs.

Despite the loss, the BJP burst fire crackers and distributed sweets at its office in Lucknow to celebrate its victories in Haryana and Maharashtra.

Hukum Singh, accused of delivering provocative speeches that sparked riots in Shamli and Muzaffarnagar last year and whom the party had given the charge of overseeing the bypoll in Kairana, said the SP has won “through unfair means”.

“More than 15 ministers of the SP government were camping in Kairana, luring voters through various mediums. Some of their ministers were present in the constituency even on the day of the polling. We complained about it to the Election Commission but they were more focused on elections in other states,” Singh told The Indian Express.

The MP also sought to reject that there was any laxity from his and party’s side during the campaigning for the bypoll.

Along with Union Minister for Agriculture and Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Balyan, BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai, too, had campaigned in Kairana.

Party’s state spokesperson Chandra Mohan echoed Singh’s views.

“We lost Kairana because the SP government misused the state machinery. We still celebrated because the party workers from UP, too, had contributions in BJP’s victory in Maharashtra and Haryana,” he said.

With this defeat, BJP has now lost a total of eight Assembly seats in the past five months after putting a spectacular show in the Lok Sabha elections where it had won 71 of the total 80 seats in the state.

In the bypolls held last month, BJP lost Sirathu, Charkhari, Nighasan, Balha, Thakurdwara, Bijnor and Hamirpur, the Assembly seats that it had won during the 2012 state elections riding on a pro-BJP wave in the state.