That a Muslim won the seat hurts them more than the BJP’s defeat.

On Hindutva WhatsApp groups in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP’s defeat in the Kairana bypoll is a matter of vindication. I-told-you-so is the tone of most responses. They blame Modi’s alleged desertion of the Hindutva agenda, but also Hindus for not being united enough.

1. “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas is taking Modi down,” says one C.M. Tiwari in a group called “Rajesh Yuva Vahini”. But Modi still has time, he says, and should focus on upper caste Hindus, otherwise he can forget 2019.

Here’s the group’s profile picture. Perhaps that’s the eponymous Mr. Rajesh with RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat.

2. On a group called “Mission Lok Sabha 2019”, one member said that the BJP shouldn’t be worried about bypoll losses because the solution is easy. All that Narendra Modi has to do is to pass a law to build a grand Ram Mandir on the disputed site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. “Give everyone a shock, fulfil your promise to Hindus. This will defeat opposition unity because Hindus are still with you, their only hope is you. This is the only way to win 2019.”

3. One viral message, cross-posted across pro-BJP, Hindutva WhatsApp groups, takes to fake news. “Today I am very happy,” it says, “I was sad at the Kairana defeat in the morning but I was overjoyed when I heard Kairana’s new Lok Sabha MP speak. She said her victory was the victory of Islam!” Of course she said no such thing. Instead, she said that Jats and Muslims alike voted for her, bringing communal harmony back to the area that saw Jat-Muslim riots in 2013.

But the blatant fake news that she called it the victory of Islam was to give the result a communal colour. “This is a slap on the faces of those Hindus who voted for Tabassum Begum just because they are opposed to Modi, and for casteist reasons. As soon as she won, she insulted their ‘bhaichara’ by removing the ‘bhai’ and showing them they are only ‘chara’ (fodder),” said another message.

Another similar message falsely claims that Tabassum Begum said the result was “a victory of Allah and the defeat of Ram. And here are we Hindus counting the cost of petrol! Shame on us!”.

4. Some messages say that Muslims are being ungrateful in not voting for the BJP. “Modi ji gave Abdul a toilet, a gas stove, a bank account, insurance, scholarship for his daughter… but Abdul stabbed Modi ji in the back in Kairana. Come back Modi ji, time for your ghar wapsi.”

No matter how much Modi offers chaddars at Sufi shrines, no matter how many mosques he visits, he is not going to get Muslim votes, the same message warns. “The message from Kairana is that he may lose Hindu votes instead.”

5. While most messages politely beseech Modi to stick to Hindutva, one poem in shuddhHindi doesn’t mince words. From doing an alliance with a soft-separatist PDP in Kashmir to not building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, it counts all the Hindutva problems with Modi.

6. One long message from “Raghavendra Hindu” says that Modi was not made Prime Minister to build roads or toilets or clean the streets. “Calling himself pradhan sewak, it looks like Modi has started thinking he really is a sewak. But he was elected to rule India and end the Muslim rule. When media used to call Modi the killer of Muslims, Hindu nationalists used to feel proud of him. Modi was made Prime Minister because after hundreds of years they found someone who can teach these people a lesson in their own language,” it says. It says Modi will have to explain what he has done for Rashtra and Dharma, nation and faith. From Ram Mandir to Article 370 to population control, it asks of all the popular Hindutva concerns.

7. Most messages are centred around Hindutva, but there’s only one that mentions the problems of sugarcane farmers and the BJP’s alienation of Dalits. For this, it blames neither Modi nor Yogi, but Yogi’s ministerial colleagues.