The Hindu : Other States / Uttar Pradesh News : BJP yet to analyse U.P. debacle

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 20, 2004

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Other States - Uttar Pradesh

BJP yet to analyse U.P. debacle

By J P Shukla

LUCKNOW, MAY 19 . The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership which had put an ambitious target of winning 35 seats in Uttar Pradesh has failed to reconcile to the Lok Sabha election results which have helped it to retain the third position by a margin of only one seat above the Congress.

While ordinary workers feel that every thing had gone wrong with the party during the elections, the leadership, brooding over the losses, has promised to come out with the reasons of its failure only after a macro-analysis of the results.

A quick stock-taking of the outcome, however, indicated that caste considerations had eclipsed every issue that the BJP tried to rake up. There were no emotive concerns to polarise voters on communal lines and the hype created over such slogans as "India shining'' failed to catch up with the people's imaginations. In the selection of candidates it was not the winnability of the candidate but the favour that some one enjoyed with a leader who had a say in the distribution of party tickets.

The enthusiasm in the BJP over the entry into the party of Kalyan Singh was misplaced. He was given all the importance during the campaigning period, but failed to bring about any proportionate enhancement in the fortunes of the party.

However, the single most important factor that affected the BJP chances even beyond the boundary of Uttar Pradesh was the stampede on the birth day of the party leader, Lalji Tandon, on April 12 in which 22 women were killed while attending a function to receive free gifts of sarees. The BJP and even the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, little realised that the tragedy taking place on the eve of the elections could have dangerous consequences for them. The mishap was brushed off just as any other accident and no fault was found with Lalji Tandon whose arrest was demanded by opposition parties.

The BJP this time also experienced an unusual rivalry between the rank and file from the State and the poll managers who had descended with their own plans to influence voters with their "high-tech'' style of campaigning. A "boastful'' Pramod Mahajan was never tired of referring to the successes of his "five star'' election management which had helped the BJP to show exceptional results in the State Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

According to Kalyan Singh, the reasons for party losses could be many. To arrive at right conclusions, results would have to be analysed in detail. As for indiscipline and internal bickering in the party, he points out that as many as five MLAs had been expelled while elections were in progress. The leadership would have to seriously consider every thing and take corrective measures for the future, he says.

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BJP yet to analyse U.P. debacle