LUCKNOW: Seems the BJP is unable to digest its defeat in recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls in UP as after being in a huddle for a day in the presence of party’s national president JP Nadda and over 3,000 leaders and party workers at Sunday’s UP Executive Committee meeting, various contradicting voices indicate towards a disquiet and lack of synergy between the organisation and the state government in Uttar Pradesh.
UP BJP had a day-long state executive committee meeting in Lucknow on Sunday during which deliberations were made identify the reasons for party’s dismal show in the Lok Sabha elections following which it dwindled from 62 seats in 2019 to 33 in 2024.
Besides JP Nadda, Vinod Tawde and former Amethi MP Smriti Irani, the state was represented by UP CM Yogi Adityanath, both his deputies Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak along with state unit chief Bhupendra Chaudhury and general secretary Dharampal Singh.
While the state executive concluded that the party suffered major losses as the opposition’s false narrative succeeded in sowing the seeds of confusion over issues like “Constitution change” and “ending reservation” among the voters, discussions were also held on the faulty ticket distribution, anti-incumbency against some of the sitting MPs and even the overconfidence of the party leaders, irresponsible statements by party leaders and the sulking cadre as the factors for poor performance.
CM Yogi, while attributing the defeat to ‘overconfidence,’ which hurt the expectations, exhorted the partymen to move on leaving the disappointment behind to ensure victory in the upcoming bypoll to 10 assembly seats and 2027 state polls exuding the confidence that the party would emerge from this situation strong and emphatically to form the government in Lucknow in 2027.
Amid the murmur in political circles over Yogi being held responsible for the debacle and efforts on to dislodge him both at the state and the central level, UP CM reminded the party that how one of the most formidable alliances — SP-BSP — was decimated in 2019. He also mentioned party’s glorious performances in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022.
A number of state BJP leaders feel the pinch of the curtailed role of Yogi Adityanath in the selection of candidates who were repeated despite having strong anti-incumbency against them. Moreover, a majority of the two and three-term MPs were repeated in UP.