Jharkhand loss may prompt BJP to be more receptive to regional satraps

The Jharkhand setback for the BJP, which comes on the back of its below-par show in Haryana and Maharashtra, has given rise to the view that more space should be given to the voices of regional satraps other than the local leadership and not ignore their concerns.

Sources said the party leadership will soon be taking stock of the situation about what went wrong in Jharkhand and emphasised that local issues such as leadership and internal strife in the state unit besides a united Opposition will be among the issues to be analysed before chalking out strategy for upcoming polls, including in Delhi in couple of months.

The Jharkhand experience has highlighted the need to be more receptive to the voices from local units, especially in states where the party is in power, sources said, adding that the BJP may have lost some seats in Maharashtra as well by denying tickets to several regional bigwigs not seen well disposed to the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The stunning loss of outgoing Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das to Saryu Roy, one of the most prominent local faces of the party who turned a rebel, is also a pointer to the fact that the central leadership may have made an error by ignoring Roy's case against Das' style of functioning, sources said.

It may prompt the party to look more closely at developments in party-ruled states like Assam, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, they said.

While the party is seen to be on the defensive in protest-hit Assam over changes in citizenship law, it has done poorly in local polls in Uttarakhand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah have so far chosen to fully back their chief ministerial choices and not encouraged dissenting views.

With the Jharkhand loss coming in the face off the CAA and the NRC-related protests, questions are also being raised at the BJP's emphasis on ideological planks more so when opposition has often succeeded in getting the better of it by studiously focusing on local issues and avoiding to taken on the saffron party over its Hindutva pitch.

BJP leaders, however, assert that their ideological agenda has helped the party consolidate its vote base. These national planks, they said, may not have been supplemented sufficiently by state-specific issues that resonate more in local polls.

The loss of power for the BJP in as many as four states since last year will also give the opposition a greater say in Rajya Sabha when elections to the House from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are held.

The JMM-led three-party alliance ousted the BJP from power in Jharkhand on Monday, winning 46 seats in the 81-member assembly and reducing the saffron tally to 25 from 37.