New Delhi: Two BJP Chief Ministers may find themselves in a tricky spot due to results of 30 October bypolls,
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his Karnataka counterpart Basavaraj S Bommai have cause to worry, experts feel.
The BJP’s rout in Himachal was the most bitter, as arch rival Congress swept the three Assembly and the one Lok Sabha seat that went to polls.
In Karnataka, while the BJP wrested the Sindgi seat from Janata Dal (Secular), it is the defeat in his home turf Hangal that has come as a setback for Bommai. This defeat will hurt more as the Chief Minister had campaigned extensively in the constituency.
Party leaders countered the argument that the BJP lost in Himachal Pradesh due to high cost of fuel and edible oil, to point to the narrowing of the lead of Abhay Singh Chautala by the BJP in Ellenabad in Haryana (the epicentre of the farmers protest) from 12,000 votes to just over 6000 votes.
Meanwhile, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi attributed the party’s good showing in the bypolls to its workers and asked them to keep ‘fighting hate’ without fear.