The Hindu : Other States / Maharashtra News : BJP faults Sena's `premature' announcements for poll defeat

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Friday, Nov 05, 2004

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BJP faults Sena's `premature' announcements for poll defeat

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, NOV. 4. The Bharatiya Janata Party has faulted long-time ally, the Shiv Sena, on at least two counts for the reverses suffered in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections.

One is the "premature" announcement on free power and waiving of farm loans by the Sena chief, Bal Thackeray. And the other is allowing the impression to prevail that Uddhav Thackeray could be the chief minister.

If the announcements could have been avoided till the model code of conduct came into force, the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine may not have hurriedly implemented a similar policy with retrospective effect. Once the code was operational, only competitive promises would have reached the voters, the BJP office-bearers felt at a party conclave here on Wednesday.

The impression that one of the Thackerays, especially Uddhav, may be the chief minister if the alliance won gave the entire campaign the "avoidable" contours of a contest between the Thackerays and the NCP chief, Sharad Pawar. The Sena chief did not choose to erase the impression. "This made voters opt for experience instead of untested but ambitious leadership," a senior leader told The Hindu.

Lack of coordination

Also, the coordination between the alliance partners was the poorest compared to other previous poll campaigns. Neither the State BJP chief, Gopinath Munde, nor the party's central leader, Pramod Mahajan, could get in touch with the Sena leaders who "remained aloof" "for nearly six weeks" before and during the campaign.

These views — the strongest ever about its ally — emerged at the meeting attended by Rajnath Singh and Mr. Mahajan. With none of them contradicted, they may be regarded as being the party's collective perception. The party also felt both the Congress and the NCP were organised better in terms of resources: manpower and money. Many BJP office-bearers, who normally conduct the campaign, were candidates this time. In Maharashtra, unlike elsewhere, the Congress-NCP was "punished" during the Lok Sabha polls but the party was over-optimistic to expect the voter rebuke the combine twice in six months. Had Mr. Bal Thackeray campaigned vigorously, many of these considerations could have "been swept aside," the BJP felt.

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BJP faults Sena's `premature' announcements for poll defeat