BJP celebrates Bihar win, downplays Jubilee Hills loss & banks on future gains

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana unit celebrated the NDA’s emphatic win in the Bihar Assembly elections even as it sought to downplay its poor performance in the Jubilee Hills bypoll, where its candidate Lankala Deepak Reddy secured only 17,061 votes and lost his deposit on Friday.

Party president N. Ramchander Rao, Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, legislature party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy, and other leaders distributed sweets at the State office to mark the Bihar victory. However, the bypoll result was a setback, as the BJP candidate polled fewer votes than in the 2023 Assembly elections, where he had garnered 25,866 votes.

Addressing a press conference later, Mr. Rao claimed that the bypoll was effectively won by the Majlis Party, which had ‘loaned’ its candidate to the Congress. “We have never won a majority in this constituency due to the earlier BRS-MIM tie-up. Our leaders and cadre worked hard, but misuse of official machinery and communal politics helped the ruling party win,” he alleged.

Mr. Rao further pointed out that the Congress had previously lost deposits in bypolls like Dubbak during the BRS regime. Stating that the leaders and cadre worked hard for the last one month for the campaign, he expressed confidence that BJP would bounce back in the next Assembly elections and come to power. “We will continue to fight this anti-people government and will soon announce a protest programme,” he said.

Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the party would review its bypoll performance and blamed minorities for voting ‘one-sided’. He urged the majority community to ‘awaken’ to this trend. “NDA/BJP governments are in power in 20 States, while the Congress has been reduced to a sub-regional force, winning fewer seats than even the Majlis Party in Bihar. In most States, people have voted for development but here the Congress government has no funds for any work,” he asserted.

He also demanded that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy order a probe into the assets of deceased BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath and questioned how BRS could claim to be the main opposition when it had lost two bypolls, MLC elections, and failed to win a single MP seat. “We are going to be the alternative. Our next target is West Bengal, followed by Telangana,” he said.

Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, who led the party’s bypoll campaign, released a statement where he too hailed the Bihar verdict and alleged that the Congress win in Jubilee Hills was aided by AIMIM’s support and large-scale cash distribution.

The BJP will formally report to the Election Commission on this aspect. He expressed confidence that the party would expand its presence in Telangana, citing its recent electoral gains. Mr. Maheshwar Reddy accused the Chief Minister of ‘threatening’ voters by warning that schemes would be stopped during the campaign.

However, Nizamabad MP D. Aravind admitted that the bypoll result was ‘depressing’ for party workers. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: “A seat we could have won or at least come close second. We are performing dismally. Why is the entire nation voting one way and Telangana the other? If BJP doesn’t plan and make a concrete strategy, Congress will consolidate further in the next Assembly elections.” Senior BJP leaders declined to comment on his remarks.