BJP office wears deserted look

A little after 9.30 am on Tuesday, the usually bustling premises of the Delhi BJP office on Pant Marg wore a deserted look.

Sensing a dismal outcome from the initial counting trends, neither party bigwigs nor the foot soldiers turned up at the city headquarters.

As the day progressed, only a couple of police personnel and party workers were seen sitting quietly at the office.

Over 50 vacant chairs were yearning for supporters and a TV screen showed results with a lowerered sound. Otherwise it was quiet.

The party on Monday had said was making its spokespersons available for tv bytes and reactions on the Delhi poll results.  But they were not around.

Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay turned up later in the day and admitted before the mediapersons that the party accepted the verdict with humility.

Upadhyay said the elections were connected with local issues and the party will analyse the reasons for its loss.

“The BJP has been working for the welfare of the people of Delhi and we shall continue to serve them on local issues,” he said.

As the day progressed, angry workers started blaming Upadhyay and national party chief Amit Shah for the defeat.

Sources said workers believed that Shah failed to read the city’s cosmopolitan character correctly and alienated the Delhi unit cadre by relying more on workers brought in from other states.

The buzz in party was that opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi scripted the BJP’s defeat in Delhi to settle scores with him.

“Such a wave in favour of the AAP can also be attributed to the negative campaign against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal,” said a leader.

Every direct attack on Kejriwal strengthened the anti-BJP feeling and consolidated the AAP vote.

Also, the local BJP leaders who were shouldered out by the Modi-Shah team didn't work hard enough for the party. and ensured a defeat to force an internal debate for change in the party leadership, the reasoning went.

Some BJP leaders also said that Modi may try to rehabilitate defeated chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi with either a Governor’s role or as an advisor in the central government.