The by-polls to 29 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats were all about alliances, arithmetic, coalitions and equations around local factors that matter the most to the common and ordinary electorate. Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies were in for a show in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Assam with Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Nitish Kumar and Himanta Biswas Sharma taking the edge suffering a setback in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, crucially pointing out how people generally respond to the question of alternative if for any with a Congress stunning pundits and commentators with its unprecedented and thumping electoral presentation in Himachal Pradesh.
Did anyone see it coming at the first instance? But then, politics is all about suspense and surprises, as for RJD’s anxiety and apprehensions about the counting of votes in Kusheshwar Sthan and Tarapur.
Similarly, in Huzurabad, did anyone notice the BJP sweep with the former TRS candidate jumping the ship? All these are signs and indicators of how political sentiments of the public get shaped by popular perceptions and propaganda largely determining their choices, opinions and decisions irrespective of whom they seek to endorse, while opposing what they fundamentally prefer to take sides with what they stand for. Their aspirations and ambitions inspire their instincts.