At a time when its main rival BSP was not contesting these by-elections, Samajwadi Party could not even take advantage of sympathy factor in two constituencies.

It would be worth mentioning here that Samajwadi had won from Muzaffarnagar, Deband and Bikapur in 2012 assembly polls and vacancies were caused by death of party MLAs. In order to cash on sympathy factor, the party gave tickets to family members.

Only in Bikapur, Samajwadi Party candidate Anand Sen could win as his father Mitrasen Yadav had been thrice MP and four times MLA. But in Deoband ,Meena Rana, widow of minister Rajendra Singh Rana lost to Congress . and in Muzaffarnagar too, SP candidate Gaurav Swarup, son of minister Chitanjan Swarup lost by 7000 votes to Kapil Deo Agarwal of BJP.

The fact remains that Samajawadi Party national President Mulayam Singh Yadav had taken elections seriously and had warned party leaders that action would be taken if party lost these by-polls.

The analysis of these by-elections reveals that Samajwadi Party is losing its grips on voters especially among muslims after Muzaffarnagar riots.

The communal polarization in western UP helped BJP winning Muzaffarnagar assembly seat. So much so BJP used Muzaffarnagar riot accused MLA Suresh Rana to campaign for party MLA to polarize votes to ensure victory. The issue of Bahu-Beti and Gau was raised during the campaign by BJP leaders.

Similarly BJP demonstrated its hold on western UP when party won deputy mayor seat in prestious Ghaziabad election.

Communal polarization also helped Congress in winning Deoband assembly seat after 26 years when party candidate Mavia Ali backed by powerful party leader Imran Masood defeated Meena Rana of Samajwadi Party. The victory is all the more significant for Congress that it is seat of Darul-Uloom-Deoband-the seat of Asia's biggest and most reputed islamic seminaries.

At a time when party's fortunes are down, the victory at Deoband has boosted the moral of party which won only two seats in Lok Sabha that too of Sonia and Rahul from the state.

Communal polarization in Deoband is evident from the fact that BJP had got only 9857 votes in 2012 assembly polls but this time party candidate got 45,513 votes and Congress strategy to give Muslim candidate paid rich dividend. Although SP tried to get non-BJP votes but Muslim voted en bloc to Congress to ensure defeat of BJP.

Significantly enough, Asaduddin Owassi could not make much impact in Bikapur assembly polls despite his attempt to unite dalit and Muslims to defeat Samajwadi Party in the absence of BSP which was not contesting the elections.

Initially Owassi was not allowed to hold rallies but he managed to reach Bikapur and held election rally which was very well attended . He gave call to Muslims and dalits to capture power by joining hands and supporting his party. Owasis candidate Pradeep Kori was placed fourth with 11,857 votes.

Although BSP as a rule was out of these by-elections, but its voters indulged in tactical voting to ensure defeat of Samajwadi Party. It was due to this strategy Munna Singh Chauhan of Rashtriya Lok Dal got very impressive 62456 votes and was placed second in Bikapur.

Commenting on results, BJP spokesman Vijay Pathak said that people of state were fed up with misrule of Akhilesh Yadav government and deterioration in law and order situation.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that no matter what was the result of these bypolls , his party will come back to power in 2017. (IPA Service)