LUCKNOW: Introspections are currently underway in Delhi to investigate the unexpected loss of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Major organizational changes within the party are expected with repercussions expected for some members of the BJP's state leadership.
This comes as the BJP and its allies faced a major setback in several constituencies considered to be the 'BJP bastion' in Uttar Pradesh.
The NDA slipped to 36 conceding 28 seats from its previous tally of 64 in 2019 to the opposition bloc comprising Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress which together won 43 and a single seat went to Chandrashekhar Azad, the Bhim Army chief in his electoral debut.
The BJP vote share also slipped to 41.37% in 2024 from 49.98% in 2019.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath, both his deputies – Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state BJP secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh, state unit president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, as well as other senior leaders were huddled in Delhi to review the situation after stunning debacle and ascertain the possible reasons.
Heads will roll for sure in BJP state organisation in the aftermath of the dismal show put up by the party in Lok Sabha election.
“Responsibilities will be fixed. Everyone – right from district unit presidents to regional in-charges whose activity was doubtful during the campaign will face the axe,” said a senior BJP leader.
The reasons responsible for the humiliation which the party candidates faced even in the strongholds, need to be ascertained.
While some allege betrayal by the party insiders who allegedly joined hands with the rivals and worked to ensure defeat of the BJP candidates, others alleged that instead of working for the victory, some leaders sabotaged the party campaign.
The state unit will submit its report over the reasons for the seatback and the purge in the party’s state unit organisation is imminent, said a senior BJP leader.
The saffron party’s Saharanpur candidate Raghav Lakhanpal who had won the seat in 2014 and lost it to Congress’s Imran Masood, this time, blamed it on the party campaign strategy which he claimed to have backfired and led to the drifting of Dalit and OBC votes towards the opposition candidate.
He added that even the traditional BJP voters also backed Masood, the Congress candidate who had courted controversy in 2014 owing to his statement of chopping Narendra Modi into pieces. He had lost in 2014 to Lakhanpal.
Similarly, Union minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, who was seeking a third term from Fatehpur, lost it to SP UP chief Naresh Uttam. She also smelt sabotage by some party leaders claiming that they created confusion among the voters leading to the victory of the rival.
BJP ally and the NISHAD party chief Sanjay Nishad also came out with the affront to the ‘400 paar’ slogan saying it created unease among the OBC and Dalit voters as the narrative played by the SP and Congress to amend the Constitution caught their imagination.
“Strictest action should be taken against those who damaged the party in the crucial election. Several BJP candidates are talking about internal sabotage,” said Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj, who secured victory in 2024 Lok Sabha election third time in a row.
On the other hand, a few senior BJP leaders including the state finance minister Suresh Khanna attributed the defeat to over confidence of the party leaders and cadre. Khanna was the campaign in-charge of Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha seat.
BJP RS MP and former UP unit chief of BJP Laxmi Kant Bajpai felt that party leadership failed to counter the disinformation campaign launched by the opposition strongly.
“Save Constitution and save reservation’ campaign of opposition created confusion among the BJP OBC and Dalit voters. The party in-charges should have prepared a strategy to counter the fake narrative effectively,” he added.
Even UP horticulture minister Dinesh Pratap Singh, who lost to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, also held the same opinion. A senior BJP leader said the party failed to manage the booths as effectively as it used to do in earlier polls.
“Several candidates have spoken about the betrayal by the district units office-bearers during the election campaign,” he said. The BJP tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in UP declined to 33 from 62 in the 2019 election.
