Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has targeted Samajwadi Party (SP) over its loss in the Gola Gokarn Nath assembly by-election.

She pointed at SP's loss to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 34,298 votes and said, "Who is the SP going to blame now for its loss when the BSP did not contest the election?"

Gola Gokarn Nath witnessed a bipolar contest between the SP and the BJP as the BSP and the Congress stayed away from the by-poll.

It should be noted that while the total votes polled were lesser than the general assembly elections held earlier this year, BJP's victory margin was greater.

This comes when BJP's Aman Giri was relatively weaker as a candidate against SP's Vinay Tiwari. Giri fought his first election and is just 26-year-old, while Tiwari is fighting in this seat since 2012 and has been an MLA once.

Where did BSP's votes go

If we compare the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections, we see that BSP's vote share came down by more than 10 per cent points in this seat and the SP made similar gains.

This is in line with the overall trend (read this for a better understanding) observed in the UP elections where SP gained more than the BJP when voters drifted away from the BSP.

However, if we compare the March general elections and this by-election, BSP's vote share of 10.3 per cent was divided in such a way that the BJP gained 7.2 per cent votes and the SP 3.1 per cent.

Thus, it can be said that BJP increased its vote share by attracting the bulk of the BSP’s votes in this by-election, but that is not a general trend as the SP often alleges.

Mayawati further challenges SP

The BSP chief did not stop after attacking SP over Gola Gokarn Nath loss, instead, she challenged the Akhilesh Yadav-led party to win in Mainpuri and Rampur by-elections.

Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Rampur seat got vacant after Azam Khan was disqualified from the assembly over his conviction in a hate speech case.

The Election Commission of India has announced by-elections on these seats. The date of polling is 5 December, while the counting of the votes will be done on 8 December.

"SP faces the challenge of saving these old seats. It has to be seen whether SP will be able to win these seats again after defeating BJP or it will be proved again that it is not able to defeat BJP," Mayawati said in a tweet.

She also pointed out SP's loss in Azamgarh by-polls held in June this year. Azamgarh parliamentary seat was held by Akhilesh Yadav but fell vacant after he became an MLA.

BJP won in this SP bastion because the BSP split the Muslim vote here . Similarly, BJP won in Rampur parliamentary seat as well, which was considered to be another SP bastion.

The contest here was bipolar. The BJP managed to increase its vote share by 9 per cent from 2019, 7 per cent of which it attracted from the SP.