NEW DELHI: The leadership of the Delhi BJP faced charges of "mismanagement" and "neglect of local workers" after party candidate Rajesh Bhatia lost the Rajinder Nagar bypoll on Sunday.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Durgesh Pathak defeated the BJP nominee by over 11,000 votes in the by-election.
A section of Delhi BJP leaders and workers trained guns at the state leadership accusing it of "failing" to connect with local workers and focusing on meetings and star campaigners instead of having a direct reach out to the voters.
However, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta refuted the charges and said the party worked hard to win the bypoll.
"We worked hard and managed to narrow the margin of defeat in Rajinder Nagar. Unfortunately, we could not convert our efforts into victory. The reasons for the defeat will be looked into and corrective steps will be taken," Gupta told PTI.
The BJP had lost the Rajinder Nagar seat to the AAP in the 2015 and 2020 Assembly polls by margins of over 20,000 votes.
BJP candidate Bhatia thanked the party workers and voters in Rajinder Nagar for supporting him.
"Defeat and victory are part of life. We fought a tough battle with dedication for which I am thankful to party leaders and workers. Contesting an election against the ruling party candidate is never easy and we did well."
In the bypoll, the BJP had deployed a team of 40 star campaigners including several Union ministers who canvassed extensively in the constituency.
"The party went hyper with campaigning which focused on meetings and rallies by star campaigners at the cost of direct reach out through local workers," said a senior Delhi BJP leader.
Over 800 senior BJP workers from outside Rajinder Nagar were deputed at 170 polling booths for campaigning.
"In all this mismanagement of campaigning, the local workers got lost and neglected," said another party leader.
There was a plan to arrange for the commute of thousands of Punjabi voters presently living in NCR towns to polling booths in Rajinder Nagar but it could not be executed because the local workers were not given the responsibility, he claimed.
A few senior party workers claimed that the state leaders lacked a "direct connect" with ground-level workers because they "never cared to meet them or listened to their issues.
"How can anyone say anything to state president or general secretaries when appointments were needed to meet them that never materialised," complained a local worker from Rajinder Nagar.
The defeat of the BJP in Rajinder Nagar bypoll is the second major setback to the party under Gupta's presidentship.
Last year, the party had failed to win even a single seat in the bypolls at five municipal wards in the city.
There were also murmurs in the Delhi BJP over the alleged dependence of state leaders including the president on a handful of their close leaders and workers.
"A state functionary close to Delhi BJP was not seen campaigning actively for Bhatia, though he himself belonged to Rajinder Nagar. Many others made it a point to attend only meetings and roadshows of bigger leaders and Union ministers and never got down to active campaigning," alleged several party leaders.
The Rajinder Nagar Assembly seat once considered a BJP bastion was last won by the party in 2013.