NEW DELHI: Learning from the poll results, the Congress and the BJP are expected to draw poll strategies primarily focusing on local issues for the assembly elections in Delhi and Jharkhand.
The BJP raked up issues like nationalism, Article 370 and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Haryana and Maharashtra, but it seemingly did not pay dividends. On the other hand, the Congress, which focused on local issues such as farm distress, unemployment and performance of the respective state governments, fared better than expected.
“We stayed away from national issues and focused on state-specific issues. The BJP faltered this time as they thought they can continue to raise nationalism to woo people. You cannot capitalise on same issues every time,” said Congress organisation secretary K C Venugopal.
In Delhi, the party has handed the baton to an old hand, Subhash Chopra to take on the ruling AAP. Having been out of power since 1998, the BJP has an uphill task.
With the AAP government announcing a series of sops in recent months, the BJP counter came up in the form of the Union Cabinet decision to give ownership rights to about 40 lakh owners of dwelling units in unauthorised colonies.
Yet, the BJP hasn’t scripted a coherent strategy to counter the freebies plank of AAP. The saffron party’s worries are compounded by the challenge to identify a chief ministerial face against Arvind Kejriwal.