Humiliating defeat of BJP in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the largest state Uttar Pradesh remained a `black spot’ for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. Though the party succeeded most of MP seats during 2014 and 2019, it fared very badly. While SP and Congress combine had won in 43 of 80 seats, BJP was confined to 36 seats.
The task force of 40 BJP UP members has come up with predictable reasons for the party’s setback. Mainly it pointed out the sidelining of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in party and government affairs and attempt to sway with PM Modi’s popularity only cost the party extensively.
Party insiders admit that the genesis of the UP defeat needs more introspection. The investigation should have started with the BJP’s central election committee meeting on February 29, when the names of some 50 of the 80 UP seats were cleared. The committee members, including Adityanath, waited for over two hours since PM Modi, Amit Shah and J P Nadda first met informally at Lok Kalyan Marg, where a short list of 50 BJP Lok Sabha candidates was drawn up.
At the official meeting, general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh read out the names and few interjected. The names from UP were cleared in barely 20 minutes and some 65% were sitting MPs, since the party seemed confident that UP’s formidable ‘double engine ki sarkar’ would ensure their victory.
Adityanath’s reported suggestion to change the names of 35 sitting MPs was ignored. Eventually, 27 BJP incumbents lost the polls. Incidentally, the BJP won all the Lok Sabha seats around Gorakhpur, Adityanath’s stronghold but lost in parliamentary seats around Varanasi, the PM’s constituency.
If they had travelled to Varanasi, they would have discovered the considerable resentment over contracts for major projects in and around the city being awarded not to local UP contractors, but to those from western India.
Though Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya remained mostly in Delhi after the election results, lobbying for chief minister post replacing Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister seems to be now trying to assert himself.
He convened a meeting with his cabinet ministers in Lucknow on Wednesday and was given specific tasks keeping in view of bypolls for 10 assembly seats. Incidentally, the Election Commission delayed in announcing the schedule for these polls.
