In Handia by-elections held early this month, it was impressive victory for Samajwadi Party’s Prashant Kumar Singh who defeated his nearest rival BSP's Pankaj Tripathi by a margin of 26,817 votes. Singh polled 81,655 votes, Tripathi got 54,838 votes.

Traditionally ruling parties win most by-elections and Singh also had sympathy on his side-the seat had fallen vacant after death of his father Mahesh Narain Singh

Political analyst Surendra Rajput said that it was a matter of shame that candidates of both the national parties not only lost their deposits but could not even fight against SP and BSP.

What could be more humiliating for BJP that its candidate Vidya Kant slipped to fourth position with 3,809 (2.42%) vote share, Congress's Amrit Lal Bind finished fifth with 2,880 (1.83%) votes. The BJP and the Congress taken together secured just 4.25% vote share, almost equal to the little known Pragatsheel Manav Samaj Party which came third with 6,460 (4.11%) votes.

Since Handia has almost 45 per cent youth the results show that BJP and Congress have been alienated from younger generation.

So much so, caste and communal politics could not bring any help for BJP and Congress. BJP had fielded a Brahmin candidate and it was banking support from Brahmins and other upper castes voters.

During campaign, BJP leaders tried to play Hindutva card by taking the names of leaders like Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi but nothing worked at the ground level. He further said that as long as the party fails to identify with local issues, it would be difficult to come up to the expectation of public.

A senior leader of BJP accepted the fact that mere rhetoric by playing Hindutva card would not help party which failed to connect with people over past one decade.

Congress had fielded a candidate who had migrated from BSP and he could not get votes from his caste leave aside Muslims or voters of other castes. Senior leaders said that party should have fielded traditional leader and loyalist rather then depending on turn-coats.

The propaganda that upper caste would not vote for BSP for having demanded quota within quota in government services has also proved to be wrong in Handia by-election. Anybody from upper caste contesting on BSP could get support from his own caste.

Congress has not learnt any lessons from the humiliating performance of party candidate in Bhatpar Rani by-election held in the month of February. In that election too party candidate had been placed at fourth position and party had lost deposit.

What could be more disturbing for Congress is that senior leaders like UPCC President Nirmal Khatri, Digvijay Singh MP, PL Punia MP chairman of All Indian Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission and Union minister Beni Prasad Verma campaigned for party candidates and miserably failed to mobilize voters for party.

Significantly enough, BJP’s newly appointed in charge of UP affairs, Amit Shah has announced that party would change drastically and achieve the target of 40 Lok Sabha from UP alone to form the government at the centre.

Similarly Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit to Amethi talked about major changes in the party and called upon party workers to send 40 MPs to Lok Sabha from UP. (IPA)