The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited Karnataka and addressed poll meetings asking people to overthrow the Congress government in the state. Till the Lok Sabha bypolls results were out, BJP was beating drums of victory when the party defeated the CPM in Tripura. In the North-East elections, only Tripura was bagged by the BJP while in Nagaland and Meghalaya its performance was very poor. Media presented the Tripura win as a great victory as it was the first entry of the BJP. No doubt the CPM Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was a popular leader, the party’s performance was disappointing. The benefit of the anti-incumbency went to the BJP. Before March 14 when the results of the Lok Sabha by polls were out, the BJP was flying high with the intoxication of the North-East win. After biting dust in the Lok Sabha bypolls, the reality should grip the party.
The Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted on March 11 that the BJP’s Tripura win would not have any impact on Karnataka. His tweet only expressed the vast difference between the North-East state and Karnataka. Once the CPM had influence in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. Now it is ruling the last mentioned state and lost its bastion in other places. In Karnataka, the Siddaramaiah rule won the hearts of the people. Therefore there is a vast difference between the political atmospheres of Tripura and Karnataka.
The UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while in Karnataka for the poll campaign repeated again and again that the lotus would bloom in the state. Now when he could not retain his long held constituency of Gorakhpur, he can hardly claim to recapture Karnataka.
