India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.
BJP has been brainstorming for the last 48 hours to find out the reason for the poor performance in Uttar Pradesh. What came out of this brainstorming? Meetings have been going on with candidates from different regions and officials of the organization in Lucknow BJP office since Thursday. There was a meeting of Awadh leaders on Thursday. On Friday, the party took reports from candidates and officials of Kanpur-Bundelkhand region. BJP has won only 4 seats out of 10 seats in Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, while BJP has won only 7 seats out of 16 seats in Awadh region. UP BJP President Bhupendra Chaudhary and other leaders of UP BJP organization were present in this meeting. First, those officials were talked to who were given the responsibility of Lok Sabha seats by the organization. After that, the defeated candidates were talked to in private. The defeated candidates spoke openly in front of the party. BJP candidate RK Singh Patel, who lost the election from Banda, said that the public believed the narrative created by the opposition about the constitution and reservation. Patel also explained the reason for this. He said that if only the opposition had said these things, the public might not have believed it, but many local BJP leaders openly campaigned for the opposition, endorsed their agenda and betrayed the party.
Mohanlalganj BJP candidate Kaushal Kishore is also accusing his own people of betrayal. Kaushal Kishore kept winning elections from Mohanlalganj in 2014 and 2019. He was also a minister in the central government but this time he too could not save his seat. Kaushal Kishore said that the opposition’s narrative of ending the constitution and reservation stuck with the public. The BJP leadership was not successful in explaining its point. On top of that, people within the party worked to make them lose the elections. UP BJP Vice President Vijay Pathak said that the party is not disappointed with this defeat. This organization had taken BJP from 10 to 73 in UP. By knowing the reasons for the defeat and removing them, the party will again become strong in Uttar Pradesh. BJP has formed a task force of 80 leaders. A team of two members will go to 2 Lok Sabha seats and prepare a report. To find out the reason for the defeat, the UP BJP organization is preparing three types of reports. The first report is based on the feedback of the candidate, the second is the report of the team that went to the Lok Sabha seats and the third is the report prepared at the divisional level. On the basis of these three reports, a final report will be prepared which will be sent to the central leadership. The party has clearly indicated that strict action will be taken against those who indulge in sabotage during the elections. After the meeting, UP BJP President Bhupendra Chaudhary said that the party accepts the decision given by the people of UP, the mistakes will be rectified.
The leaders of BJP’s alliance party also complain that BJP’s local units did not work properly, did not follow the coalition dharma. Two days ago in Ballia, Om Prakash Rajbhar said that BJP leaders and workers worked to defeat his candidate. BJP leaders kept pretending. They also denied the instructions of Modi-Yogi. They kept claiming support from the front but supported the opposition candidate from behind. However, today Om Prakash Rajbhar backtracked from his statement. He said that whatever news is being circulated is fake news. He did not say anything like this, he is with NDA. He has full faith in Modi-Yogi. All these rumours have been spread by the opposition. Election experts have analyzed many times why BJP’s seats decreased in Uttar Pradesh. Most people believe that BJP did not take caste equations into account while distributing tickets. Akhilesh Yadav fielded only 5 Yadavs of his family, gave tickets to only 4 Muslims, and gave tickets to candidates who took votes on the basis of caste on the remaining seats. This strategy worked. But the analysis that came out today is an analysis of BJP’s own losing candidates, that is why it is important. Broadly, three things came out. First, BJP defeated BJP in UP. The party’s own leaders got their candidates defeated. Everyone thought that they are going to cross 400, they are going to win in the name of Modi, what difference will it make if they lose one or two seats. Everyone settled scores with their rivals. The result was that the party’s seats came down to 33.
Another disadvantage of the slogan of 400 plus was that Rahul and Akhilesh linked it to the intention of removing reservation. This narrative was run against BJP. It was fake, wrong, but BJP failed to counter it. Another aspect of the analysis inside BJP is that Yogi Adityanath had recommended changing the tickets of at least 35 candidates, but no one accepted it. BJP gave tickets to more than 34 candidates who had contested elections for the third consecutive time or more. Out of these, 20 lost the elections. The biggest setback for BJP was losing the Ayodhya seat, and in the internal discussions of the party, it came up repeatedly that how did BJP lose the seat where a grand Ram temple was built? Its analysis is no secret. It is based on these three things that I have just told you. There was talk of replacing Lallu Singh. All the leaders of Ayodhya were against Lallu Singh, there were mutual conflicts. The caste equations were completely against the BJP candidate. And above all this, the narrative of removing reservation. All of them together made them lose the Ayodhya seat. So we can say that the overall analysis of BJP is that the Ayodhya seat is a big example of it. Now the biggest challenge for BJP is the assembly elections to be held after three years. Akhilesh Yadav and his party are excited. Samajwadi Party workers are enthusiastic, how will BJP counter this? Yogi Adityanath will have to think on this.
Maharashtra
In Maharashtra too, BJP has suffered a major setback in this Lok Sabha election. BJP, which won 23 seats in Maharashtra in 2019, has got only 9 seats in this election. Therefore, BJP has started looking for the reason for the defeat there too. Today, a meeting of the BJP state executive was held in Mumbai in which Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Union Minister Piyush Goyal and other leaders participated. Bawankule said that BJP has got the highest vote share in Maharashtra. In many places, the difference between victory and defeat was very less but it is true that BJP has got very few seats in Maharashtra and the reason for that is only one, Congress and other parties of Mahavikas Aghadi spread lies among the people. It was said that BJP will change the Constitution, will take away the rights of Dalits and tribals, this lie got stuck in the minds of the people and BJP suffered because of this. Only 4 months are left for the Maharashtra assembly elections. The biggest question before BJP is whether it should fight the assembly elections together with Shinde faction and NCP or fight separately? Another question is that if BJP contests the elections by forming a Mahayuti, what will be the seat sharing? Because there is news that BJP has started conducting surveys on those 106 seats where it had won in the last elections. Alliance partner Eknath Shinde has questioned BJP’s slogan of crossing 400. NCP has also not joined the central government. All this is pointing towards the fact that the coming two-three months will be very action packed in the politics of Maharashtra and many new electoral equations can be seen.
Haryana
Along with Maharashtra, assembly elections are to be held in Haryana this year. In Haryana too, BJP got half the seats this time as compared to 2019. Congress won 5 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. These include Ambala and Sirsa seats, which are reserved for Dalits. The Sirsa seat was won by BJP’s Sunita Duggal in 2019. Sunita was an IRS officer. In 2014, she left her job and joined BJP and contested elections in 2019 and reached Parliament. However, this time BJP did not give her a ticket. In Sirsa, this time BJP gave ticket to Ashok Tanwar, who had left Congress, instead of Sunita Duggal. Ashok Tanwar lost the election to Kumari Shailaja of Congress. Today, BJP leaders analyzed the election results in Rohtak. The biggest question was how the reserved seats of Ambala and Sirsa slipped out of BJP’s hands. Haryana government minister Vishwambhar Valmiki, who was present in the review meeting, admitted that there was a mistake in the selection of candidates from BJP. In this Lok Sabha election, BJP’s vote percentage in ten seats of Haryana has decreased by about 10 percent. This is not a good sign for BJP, because only four-five months are left for the election. Manohar Lal Khattar, who held the post of Chief Minister for 9 years, has become a minister at the center. Haryana Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini has been in office for only 4 months. BJP’s alliance with JJP has also broken. Jat voters of Haryana are also seen leaning towards Congress. Fighting on so many fronts simultaneously is a tough challenge for BJP. (Rajat Sharma)
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