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Following the BJP's setback in Madhya Pradesh's Datia and Bihar's Bankipur bypolls, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Tuesday termed the outcome as "interesting", asserting that the youth of the country are now motivated by aspiration, not identity.
The Congress MP also said that one can draw "many lessons" from the Bankipur bypoll election results. Chidambaram told ANI, "It's a very interesting result. I think the young of India are now motivated by aspiration and not by identity. I think there are many lessons to be learnt from this election result... My compliments and felicitations to Prashant Kishor because I think he took the bold step of contesting the elections himself, which he didn't during the general election and that was a setback..." The Congress MP also spoke on the renewed tensions that have erupted between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery river water sharing. "These are all unnecessary distractions from serious issues. The serious issue is the demand for water in the Cauvery by Tamil Nadu and the implementation of the Cauvery Management Board. I think public discourse must be civilised and must be serious. And it's disappointing to see frivolous and trivial issues taking centre stage and distracting public attention from matters which are of concern." Jan Suraaj Party president Prashant Kishore had defeated BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar by a margin of 19324 votes, as per the Election Commission of India. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party BJP chief Nitin Nabin said that the party will "introspect" and review the results of Bankipur and Datia. "We accept the mandate received in today's three assembly by-elections. We express our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Manjalpur assembly constituency in Gujarat for expressing their faith in the Bharatiya Janata Party. We extend our warm congratulations to all the dedicated workers and office-bearers of the BJP for this victory," he posted on his social media platform X on Monday. The BJP's loss, which comes close on the heels of intense youth-led protests over exam paper leaks and rising unemployment, signals a shifting political wind across the Hindi heartland, exposing vulnerable fault lines in the BJP's traditional strongholds. Simultaneously, in Madhya Pradesh's Datia, the Congress retained the key seat after defeating the BJP by over 6,000 votes. The BJP's sole consolation came from Gujarat, where it retained the Manjalpur seat in Vadodara, albeit with a drastically reduced victory margin compared to the 2022 elections. BJP retained the seat, with Satish Patel beating Congress's Bhikhabhai Rabari by 30,630 votes. But that margin is a steep fall from the 1,00,754-vote landslide the party won there in the 2022 assembly election (ANI)
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