Bypoll results in seven states, in as much as they can be seen as a barometer of the national mood, indicate that goodwill for the Congress party and its allies — five months after they won the Lok Sabha polls — remains high. After wins in the recently held state elections in Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana, the biggest source of cheer for the Congress came from UP today.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has enjoyed an uneasy relationship with the Congress for the past decade-and-a-half, was felled in his hometown, in the only Lok Sabha bypoll, in Firozabad. Dimple Yadav, his daughter-in-law, lost to Congress’s Raj Babbar by a margin of 85,343 votes.

What rankles the SP is the fact that not only has its home bastion crumbled, just six months ago, the Congress had polled barely 6,300 votes here. This reinforced the signal that with significant Yadav and Muslim votes, the drift of the SP’s core voter base — which began in the last Lok Sabha elections — seems to be gathering pace.

Rahul Gandhi’s gamble to personally camp and oversee the push for the Congress paid off and could be a blueprint for the party strategy in the state in future.

SP general secretary Amar Singh conceded that Rahul Gandhi played a role in the Firozabad outcome. “I congratulate Rahul Gandhi for the performance of the Congress in Firozabad. He campaigned for Raj Babbar and it was because of his influence that the Congress managed to wrest the seat from us,” said Singh.

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