Akhilesh Yadav: BJP's bypoll losses in Bihar, MP mark 'beginning of change'
Assembly bypolls in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, with counting of votes held on Monday, saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffer defeats in constituencies it had previously held. Reacting to the results, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said the outcome marked the “beginning of change,” asserting that public anger had prevented the BJP from retaining even its safest seat.
The bypolls were held to fill vacancies in the legislative assemblies of the two states. They involved multiple constituencies, and the counting of votes was completed on Monday. The BJP had contested these seats as part of its ongoing electoral strategy, and the losses have prompted reactions from opposition parties.
In a post on the social media platform X, Yadav wrote: “Those who boasted of making God dance have been made to dance by God himself. This is a combined result of the unity of the youth and the anger of their parents because of vote theft, paper theft, offerings and donations stolen, job stealing, reservation theft, atrocities on PDA, gross corruption, the impact of inflation, attacking the nation’s Gen Z in every way. In all these ways, BJP has betrayed the trust and faith of the people.”
The acronym PDA refers to the Pichhda (backward classes), Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (minority) communities, a term frequently used in Uttar Pradesh politics. Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has often highlighted issues affecting these groups.
Without naming the BJP national president, Yadav took a sharp dig at him, saying: “Now, even the BJP will demand the resignation of one of its own, because how can the boat sail by relying on someone who lost their own Assembly election? In reality, this defeat belongs to those who elected them, or rather, imposed their will on the organisation. Now, no one can even say that ‘resignations’ don’t happen in the BJP. This is a double defeat of the double engine.”
The term “double engine” refers to the BJP’s electoral slogan of having the party in power in both the state and at the Centre. Yadav’s remark was aimed at the party’s internal functioning and leadership, suggesting that the election defeat reflected organisational failures rather than just voter disenchantment. In his political speeches, Yadav has often criticised the concentration of power under the BJP’s “double engine” model.
Yadav further argued that the defeat signified a larger political shift. “Even the BJP is not able to save its safest and most traditional seats. Now, the BJP’s crisis will be compounded by the fact that its ticket-seeker won’t be found even with drones and binoculars,” he said, implying that the party would struggle to attract candidates in future elections.
He congratulated all winning candidates and urged them to “remain alert and committed to the Constitution to live up to the new expectations.”
The specific seats, margins, and reasons for the BJP’s losses have not been independently verified by this publication. Election authorities have not commented on Yadav’s allegations of electoral malpractice, which remain unsubstantiated. As of this report, the BJP had not publicly responded to Yadav’s remarks.
The SP, a prominent opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, has frequently used electoral outcomes to criticise the BJP-led governments. Yadav’s remarks are the latest instance of opposition leaders interpreting bypoll results as a reflection of public sentiment on governance and policy. While bypolls are often seen as a mid-term assessment of political parties, their implications for future elections are subject to debate.
