Poll strategy blamed for BJP's setback - The Times of India

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Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to put up a
brave front on Thursday, saying it was "satisfied at
being able to maintain its primacy" in Uttar Pradesh, the
party top brass are clearly shocked by the outcome of the
assembly elections in the state.

This is the second major setback for the party in three
weeks. According to a senior party functionary, the
party is "yet to overcome the Gujarat crisis, and this
blow only goes on to show that the party has gone out of
gear."

According to party insiders, the central leadership may
come in for sharp criticism when the party's national
executive meets in Jaipur next month.

At a high-level meeting presided by party, president L.K.
Advani to review the poll outcome, the leaders expressed
their dissatisfaction over the poor showing by the party
in the most important state. The hour-long meeting was
attended by Khusbhau Thakre, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sikan-
der Bakht, Jaswant Singh, K L Sharma and Sushma Swaraj.

The leaders expressed the feeling that the party had
failed to work out a coherent campaign strategy for Uttar
Pradesh.

"In U.P., the party strategists could not throw up any
attractive political slogan or highlight issues which
could have electrified the masses. The BJP campaign went
haywire halfway through the electioneering, with the
central leaders pulling In different directions. There
was no coordination between Sunder Singh Bhandari, who
was stationed as the party's chief campaign organiser In
Lucknow, and Pramod Mahajan, the party's election cell
incharge," alleged a leader, who attended Thursday's
meeting.

According to party sources, workers' complaints regarding
scarcity of campaign material, inadequate fund flow and
total mismanagement of the tour programmes of central
leaders, were ignored by election managers.

Giving examples of how the campaign was mismanaged, a
party functionary alleged that in Agra, halfway through
the campaigning, Mr Mahajan created a fuss complaining
that he was not put up in a star hotel. He even com-
plained that the place was without STD-ISD facilities.
When Mr Mahajan brought this to the notice of Mr Bhan-
dari, he is said to have commented, "Let him go away if
he cannot stay with other party workers."

The election management was so haphazard that the two
helicopters that the party hired for campaigning were
entirely at the disposal of state party president Kalraj
Mishra and chief minister candidate Kalyan Singh. Conse-
quently, senior leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Murli
Manohar Joshi, Mr Advani and Mr Bhandari were left to
travel long hours by road.

A senior functionary complained that "whiz-kids and arm-

chair politicians, who have taken over the party's cen-
tral office, had failed to measure up to the demands of
high-pitched political battle."

It is now feared in the party circles that there might be
a near exodus of MLAs to the Vaghela camp in Gujarat and
a possible setback for the party in the by-elections in
different states.

According to party spokesman Yashwant Sinha, Uttar Pra-
desh governor Romesh Bhandari should invite the BJP to
form the government in the state as it had emerged as the
single largest party. He said, "The tradition under the
constitution is for the single largest party to be invit-
ed to form the government and our hope is that the gover-
nor will abide by this practice."

Speaking about alliances, Mr Sinha said senior party
leaders, including Mr Vajpayee and Mr Mahajan, were in
Lucknow and they will decide.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general
secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet said, "People have
given their verdict against the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh
assembly elections."

In a similar vein, Communist Party of India (CPI) general
secretary A.B. Bardhan said, "We fulfilled the political
aim of ensuring that the BJP does not get a majority in
the elections," but admitted that his party's show was
none too impressive. He added that his party's aim was
to "find out how to form a secular government in Uttar
Pradesh."

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