Advantage Mayawati

It was a victory of the regional parties 8212; Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party 8212; over the national parties 8212; the BJP and the Congress. While Mayawati8217;s BSP triumphed in Gauriganj, the SP nominee came up trumps in Haidergarh.

Where BJP8217;s Moditva lost to NCP8217;s soft Hindutva

Amma in firm control

Shot-in-the-arm for Gogoi

JD squabbled, Cong won

Vote of confidence for PDP

For the Congress, the Gauriganj defeat is a major loss as it means that only one of the five Assembly seats in Sonia Gandhi8217;s parliamentary constituency of Amethi is now occupied by the party. Locals claimed that the Congress was defeated in its bastion because of the non-involvement of the Gandhi family. 8216;8216;There is a tradition in the Congress that the party president never campaigns in bypolls. This explains why Sonia, or even Priyanka, could not campaign this time,8217;8217; defended Congress spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh.

The BJP, on the other hand, is worried over the loss of the Thakur votes. 8216;8216;The results have forced us to go in for self-introspection,8217;8217; said state party chief Vinay Katiyar, adding, 8216;8216;it is certainly surprising how Thakurs have favoured the BSP despite being agitated over the POTA issue.8217;8217; In fact, both the SP and the BSP, which had earlier positioned themselves as champions of Dalits, are now wooing the upper castes. And their efforts seem to have borne fruit. Realising that the mainstream parties are becoming increasingly irrelevant in UP8217;s current political scenario, the Thakurs are now drifting towards the BSP and the SP.

Chief Minister Mayawati claimed the victory vindicated her government8217;s action against jailed Independent MLA Raja Bhaiyya, which was earlier reported to have upset the Thakur lobby. The Gauriganj seat was important for the BSP as the constituency borders Raja Bhaiyya8217;s stronghold of Kunda. Moreover, it was in Punnunpur village in Gauriganj that Priyanka Vadra had taken up the cause of a Dalit whose house was allegedly burnt down by some Thakurs. Troubled by infighting among its state leaders, including Katiyar, Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra, the BJP put up a poor fight. 8216;8216;POTA had its impact on the BJP as the Thakur lobby sided with the non-BJP candidate in both the constituencies. The defeat of the party nominees is also a reflection on Katiyar who had vowed to raise the BJP from its number three position to number one,8217;8217; said a senior state party leader.