No question of 'Modi magic' fading, says BJP's Prakash Javadekar after bypolls disaster

After the reverses suffered by the BJP in the Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls, Union minister Prakash Javadekar today rejected the opposition claim that the "Modi magic" was on the wane while some party MLAs in Uttar Pradesh targeted the state ministers with one of them even resorting to poetry.

Dealing a blow to the ruling BJP, opposition parties yesterday won 11 out of 14 Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls, limiting the saffron party and its allies to just three, and snatching the high-profile Kairana Parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh on the back of their new found unity.

Javadekar also claimed that the BJP will return to power at the Centre even stronger after 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"There is no question of the Modi magic fading. His magic persists and we will emerge even stronger at the Centre after 2019," Javadekar said in an informal chat with reporters in Dehradun on completion of Modi government's four years in office.

Those who look upon yesterday's bypoll results as an expression of public opinion on Narendra Modi government's performance are wrong, he said.

The Congress and other opposition parties termed the jolt to the BJP as the people's mandate against the four years of Modi rule and that the prime minister's "magic" was on the wane.

"Bypolls are different. Voter turnout is low and local factors are at work. Bypoll results cannot be a pointer to what is going to happen in the general elections," he said.

"Modi was not in the picture in the bypolls. He did not go anywhere. So it shouldn't be perceived as a verdict on his government under whom the country is doing well on every front," the minister said.

"We are going to do even better in 2019 than we did in 2014 in a number of states such as Orissa, West Bengal, Kerala and the northeast."

In Uttar Pradesh, a BJP MLA blamed the ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government for the party's humiliation in Uttar Pradesh bypolls, while another dejected lawmaker resorted to poetry.

Surendra Singh, BJP MLA from Bairia constituency (Ballia district), said if certain ministers in the state cabinet are not removed, the party's downfall in UP is certain.

The other BJP MLA, Shyam Prakash from Gopamau (SC) in Hardoi, posted a satirical poem on Facebook.

‘First it was Gorakhpur and Phulpur, and now it is Kairana and Noorpur,’ the poem began, recalling the string of bypoll losses suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party in UP this year.

A combined opposition wrested Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly constituencies from the BJP in the bypolls.

"For the losses in the bypolls, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is less responsible. But his ministers are more responsible for the defeat,? Surendra Singh told reporters.

‘The style of working of more than 50 per cent of the ministers in Adityanath government is not proper. They do not give any importance to party workers,’ he said.

"If these minister continue to remain in office, the party's downfall in the state is certain," he added.

Singh said if the grievances of the poor people are not heard at police stations, tehsil offices and block offices, they will not vote for the BJP.

He said the expected improvement had not taken place at these levels, and this could lead to the party's defeat.

‘The BJP government has not been able to give a transparent government,’ the MLA said.

Gopamau MLA Shyam Prakash's poem in Hindi said the party came to power invoking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but could not deliver up to the people's expectations.

‘Modi naam se paa gaye raaj, kar naa sake janta man kaaj,’ it read.

He said the poem does not target the chief minister. "All I want to convey is that the officials are not working as per the intention of the chief minister,” he told PTI.

"I am of the view that government officials are still indulging in acts of corruption. Common people and BJP workers are feeling harassed,” he said.

‘I have no complaints against the government or the Sangh. But it seems that there is no control on government officials. Corruption has increased,’ Prakash added.

"The defeat of the party in the bypolls also signals a possible threat on the future of the MLAs. It was a sad thing for us," he said, explaining why he wrote the poem.