By-election wins beginning of a victory trail: BJP

After the Lok Sabha polls setback and the internal dissensions that followed, BJP had something to cheer when it won five assembly by-elections in Gujarat and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Monday, which the party hailed as the beginning of a new victory trail.

"It seems this is the beginning of a new victory trail which started with the MCD polls. We look at the future with a new hope," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said. In Gujarat, BJP won five of the seven assembly seats, where by-polls were held on September 10. Of the seven, Congress had held six and BJP one. "We have won Jasdan seat in Rajkot district in Gujarat which BJP had never since Independence," Prasad said. The BJP MP said these wins have come at a time when the UPA government was "tom-tomming its great achievements in the first 100 days" of coming to power.

"It shows that the people of Gujarat have faith in BJP and the Modi government," Prasad said, adding that it had come despite the "motivated and renewed campaign" against Modi by Congress using the Ishrat Jahan encounter controversy. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP won one of the two by-elections. This seat was earlier held by Congress. The victory in Vikasnagar seat of Uttarakhand was also a shot in the arm for BJP. Munna Singh Chauhan had vacated this seat (after winning on a BJP ticket) and joined Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Congress downplayed the results of Gujarat Assembly by-polls in which the BJP wrested five of the seven seats but claimed that the past was catching up with state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who will be "out soon". "A set of by-elections is not indicative of any trend or direction. One set of by-election result should not be treated as indicative of future election trends," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters when asked to comment on the results.

Though admitting that Congress has "not got so good results" in the by-elections there, Singhvi said that both BJP and Modi will be out of Gujarat soon as events that took place in past there are coming full circle now. The Congress leader also said that areawise analysis of the results will be done and lessons will be learnt from the defeats. Out of the seven Assembly seats which went to by-polls on September 10, six were held by the Congress while one was with BJP.

To a query about reported comment of a BJP leader that Congress lost out in Gujarat because it sided with terrorists, Singhvi shot back, "Then what will he say about the Municipal elections in Gujarat in which BJP performed poorly. Will he say his party sided with terrorists then?"