India's ruling party BJP suffers major setbacks

• Grand alliance wins crucial seat, sets pace for 2019 general election

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday suffered major setbacks in by-elections to four parliamentary and 10 assembly constituencies spread across ten states as the opposition unity emerged victorious in an outcome that could set the political mood ahead of fresh general elections due next year.

BJP could win only one out of the four Lok Sabha constituencies and two of the ten assembly seats while its rivals bagged the three parliamentary bypolls and swept eight assembly constituencies in the byelections held last week.

The setbacks for BJP in the by-polls came less than a month after it was outsmarted by opposition Congress and Janata Dal (S) which quickly formed a post-poll alliance to form a government in the state even though the saffron party finished with highest number of seats in assembly elections earlier this month.

The biggest by-poll shock for BJP, which also rules India's biggest and politically most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, was its failure to retain the Kairana parliamentary seat and Noorpur assembly constituency.

Uttar Pradesh elects the largest number of seats (80) in Lok Sabha. BJP secured a landslide win in parliamentary elections in the state in 2014 winning 72 seats.

In Kairana, the BJP  candidate Mriganka Singh lost to combined opposition nominee Tabassum Hasan of Rahstriya Lok Dal . Tabassum, who was backed by Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, won by more than 55,000 votes.

In a further boost to the joint opposition, Samajwadi Party won Noorpur assembly seat where Naeemul Hasan trumped his nearest rival Avni Singh of BJP.

In Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal wrested the Jokihat assembly seat from the state's ruling Janata Dal (United) led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who parted ways with Lalu Prasad and joined hands with BJP last year.