Editorial

UP bypoll results: Wake-up call for BJP

Losing the Lok Sabha by-elections to the seats vacated(खाली/निकालना) by the current chief minister and deputy chief minister of India’s biggest state, less than a year after a resounding(शानदार/गूंजना) victory in state elections, is indeed a major setback for the BJP, particularly at the state level. For the Opposition, the gain is less than symmetric(सममित).That Mayawati chose to break a long tradition of going it alone and supported the Samajwadi Party (SP) in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur was crucial to the SP’s

victory. Equally(समान रूप से), most other Opposition parties, save the Congress, had extended support to the SP, to defeatशिकस्त/हार) what has evolved into their common existential(अस्तित्व/जीवित) threat(खतरा /धमकी), the BJP. Such consolidation of the Opposition is easy to form for a couple of seats in a by-election, tough to forge(बनाना/मन से गढ़ लेना) state- or country-wide, come the 2019 general elections. Nor is there any guarantee that a combined Opposition can prevailover the BJP.

In both Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the BJP had secured more than 50% of the vote in 2014 — even if the Opposition had put up a united fight, it would have lost. Clearly, it is some degree of disenchantment(निराशा/मोहभंग) with the performance of the UP government that has allowed the united Opposition to prevail now. It may also be recalled that PM Narendra Modi had not campaigned(अभियान चलाया) in the by-elections. Even if the BJP’s defeat is not the direct result of this omission, it is bound to tighten Modi’s grip over the party. In Bihar, Lalu Prasad’s RJD has retained the Araria Lok Sabha seat and an assembly seat, while the BJP retained another assembly seat. The RJD leader’s conviction(दोषसिद्धि/धारणा) in an old corruption(भ्रष्टाचार/नैतिक पतन) case has not dented the solidity of his Muslim-Yadav vote base, clearly enough. What these results indicate is the Indian polity’s ability to spring surprises, rather than any definite direction for 2019.

Important Vocabulary

1.Vacated(खाली/निकालना
Synonyms: abandon, annul, depart, dissolve, empty
Antonyms: allow, approve, come, continue, do

2.Resounding(शानदार)
Synonyms: earsplitting, electrifying, emphatic, forceful, loud
Antonyms: incomplete

3.Defeatशिकस्त
Synonyms: beating, blow, breakdown, collapse, debacle
Antonyms: accomplishment, achievement, boon, success, win

4.Forge(बनाना
Synonyms: falsify, produce, coin, copy, design
Antonyms: be original, destroy, raze, ruin, stop

5.Conviction(दोषसिद्धि
Synonyms: confidence, faith, feeling, principle, sentiment
Antonyms: distrust, doubt, disbelief, unbelief, overturning