Bypoll verdict 50:50, says Chidambaram

As the Opposition parties have won five of the 10 Assembly bypolls, the BJP has now got nothing to boast about,  feels Congress leader P Chidambaram.

The former finance minister took to Twitter to point out the 50:50 bypoll verdict: “10 byelections, BJP wins 5, non-BJP parties win 5. Are not the honours even?”

The Congress won three seats — two in Karnataka and one in Madhya Pradesh. The Trinamool Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won one seat each in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

“The real headline of the day is ‘BJP loses ATER seat in MP to Congress’,” he wrote, in an apparent reference to the reports of reported EVM tampering in the Assembly seat in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh.

The Ater seat had fallen vacant after the death of Satyadev Katare, leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. Ater was at the centre of a controversy after a video purportedly showed that the EVMs — used in a demonstration exercise — recorded votes only in favour of the BJP.

The video gave a boost to the Opposition campaign against the use of EVMs.

The Supreme Court is hearing a petition filed by Mayawati’s BSP against the use of EVMs in forthcoming elections contending that the machines could be tampered with.