After the defeat, blame game begins in BJP

Top guns in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are under fire for a faulty election strategy and ignoring early warnings of rebellion from disgruntled leaders in Delhi and Rajasthan — factors which caused the party’s unexpected defeat in these key states.

Sources said vice-president Venkaiah Naidu and general secretary Arun Jaitley, who were in charge of Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Delhi, respectively, would have to explain a lot before the fact-finding committee set up by BJP President Rajnath Singh to analyse specific reasons for the party’s defeat in these states.

Jaitley, who has over the years gained reputation as an ace election strategist, is now being blamed for picking VK Malhotra to take on as charismatic a rival as Sheila Dikshit. After the party’s defeat, Malhotra’s detractors have become more vocal against Jaitley’s choice.

In Mumbai, BJP’s national general secretary Gopinath Munde has also come under fire because of the party’s defeat in Rajasthan. Munde had firmly backed chief minister Vasundhara Raje to the hilt. Even after demands were raised to replace her in the wake of the Gujjar agitation and various other issues, Munde provided her crucial support. Munde’s relationship with the party’s Maharashtra chief Nitin Gadkari, and the state unit’s general secretary, Vinod Tavade, are far from cordial. Insiders in the party feel the state leadership will use this opportunity to sideline Munde.

Malhotra, meanwhile, has openly accused that some of the party insiders had worked against him in the elections. Even though he conceded defeat, Malhotra has asked his party to probe into the “anti-party activities” of some senior BJP leaders in Delhi which, he believes, was a key reason for the party’s defeat.

Though he did not name anyone, the obvious suspects are leaders like Harshvardhan and Vijay Goel, who were contenders for chief ministerial nomination when Jaitley had favoured Malhotra for his “wide experience and pro-development record as a municipal councilor”.

“We should have put up a younger leader against Sheila Dikshit,” a member of the BJP said while asking not to be named.

However in Rajasthan, the BJP leaders believe that while the developmental agenda of Vasundhara Raje should not have been mixed with the anti-terrorism plank at a later stage of the campaign, they claim that the presence of 62 party rebels as candidates had only helped the Congress.

Naidu, on his part, said: “The infighting really harmed us. We had no option but to do a major surgery when it was too late.” He was referring to dropping of a large number of sitting legislators in the face of groundswell of anger against Raje.

The BJP Parliamentary party had endorsed Naidu’s views by saying, “The party could have done better in Rajasthan had we been able to put our house in order and avoid a large number of rebels,” sources said the BJP leader would have to explain why he did not manage the resentment against Raje much earlier.