None Of The Above

THREE Lok Sabha and 66 assembly seats may be a drop in the Indian electoral ocean, but the outcome of this fortnight’s byelections in 15 states provides further evidence of the poll-weary voter’s motto: let’s not put all eggs in one basket.

With Narasimha Rao courting Behram-pur, Nandyal plumped for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). And with Janata Dal (JD) strongman Biju Patnaik opting for Aksa, Cuttack voted Congress. But Gandhinagar stayed with the BJP despite Rajesh Khanna and Shankersinh Vaghela.

Nandyal was high on Chandrababu Naidu’s wish-list, and the TDP win with a majority akin to Rao’s five years ago was true to plan after the Congress had done its bit by propping up a rank outsider, former Union minister P.V. Rangaiah Naidu, in faction-ridden Rayalaseema.

But the joy in the TDP ranks at winning Nandyal, retaining seven of the 11 assembly seats, and wresting one from the Congress was shortlived, as news came in of Lakshmi Parvathi’s win at Pathapat-nam, where Naidu had tried everything at his command to prevent her election.

Parvathi, promising to restore the Rs 2-a-kilo rice programme, made mincemeat of a weak rival, with more than a little ‘clandestine’ help from TDP cadres. Naidu has the numerical strength in the House, but Parvathi can still be a thorn in his flesh: she has already sought separate seats for her men.

The JD debacle in Orissa highlighted the waning power of Biju Patnaik and the strides the BJP has made in coastal areas after storming the western districts. Its candidates walked away with 95,000 votes in Cuttack and wrested the Bhubaneshwar segment.

It was on Gujarat, however, that all eyes were focussed. Despite two years of dissidence that has marred its image, the BJP came up with an impressive showing, retaining the prestigious Gandhi-nagar LS constituency where the Congress had put up cinestar Khanna. Bete noire Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) nominee lost his deposit. In the Dharampur assembly seat, its candidate secured less than half the votes polled by the BJP. Only in Nadiad, retained by the Congress, did the RJP come anywhere near the BJP.

The bypolls to eight assembly seats in Karnataka, Prime Minister Deve Gowda’s home-state, assumed significance for the ruling JD as it was its first electoral test after Ramakrishna Hegde’s expulsion in June. But Hegde’s ‘apolitical’ Rashtriya Navanirmana Vedike didn’t take part, backing major contestants in various seats, even the JD in one. In the event, the JD lost two of its six seats, including one to a rebel, but only four Vedike-backed men won. By wresting Guledgudda from the JD and retaining Bhatkal, the BJP ensconsced itself as the main Opposition party but the Congress plunged further, losing deposits in nearly half of the seats it contested.

The Congress drew a blank in Maha-rashtra too. But the verdict was more notable for the Shiv Sena’s defeat at the hands of the Samajwadi Party in Nehru Nagar in the wake of the Kini murder row and the growing schisms in the Sena-BJP combine.

It wasn’t sackcloth and ashes all the way for ruling parties. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dig-vijay Singh, for one, has reason to be relieved. The Congress retained the one seat of the 10 it held, and wrested four from the BJP. Tottering just months ago after losing ground to his arch-rival, things could not have been better for Digvijay. "Arjun Singh and Madhavrao Sci-ndia have become irrelevant in MP politics," he said as the Tewari Congress and Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress put up a dismal show.

In Haryana, Bansi Lal too had much to crow about. The Haryana Vikas Party-BJP candidate triumphed in the lone seat up for grabs. The Samajwadi Janata Party and Congress had termed the bypoll as a ‘mini-referendum’ on Lal’s policies (read: prohibition).

The Janata Dal suffered a major reverse in Bihar. In the wake of the fodder scam, it lost four of the 10 seats it held. The formidable BJP-Samata Party combine did the damage with L ovely Anand, wife of Samata Party leader Anand Mohan, coming up trumps in the Nabhinagar constituency.

As results came in from Kerala, where Left Front Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar won; from Assam, where the ruling Asom Gana Parishad won three of the five seats it held; from Rajasthan, where the BJP upped its tally by one but lost one; from Arunachal, where the Congress wrested the lone seat; and from Himachal Pradesh and Goa, the writing on the wall was the voter’s: there is no one we trust all the time.