Flawed strategies, controversial remarks hurt BJP

Having faced second back-to-back humiliating defeat in a span of eight months, the BJP top brass on Sunday faced embarrassing situation with leaders openly questioning the Bihar Assembly election strategy. 

Joining the bandwagon of disgruntled leaders like Shahtrughan Sinha, journalist-turned-BJP leader Chandan Mitra attacked BJP chief Amit Shah in his blog for what he said drafting a “high-pitched campaign” which voters rejected and the Grand Alliance’s strategy to have a “low-key campaign” to project “soft-spoken Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate did the trick” in Bihar.

Stressing on cultivating local leaders, Mitra argued, “It is an established fact that when casteism determines voting intentions in North Indian states, the BJP ends up as the main loser.....in the attempt to match caste with caste, BJP strategists erred in their calculations.”

Privately, other BJP leaders accepted that the party repeated the error it committed during the Delhi polls, where it won three seats, of over centralisation of the election strategy, pushing local leaders to the background. Amit Shah, along with at least a dozen central ministers, were permanently stationed in Bihar to micromanage polls, apart from the poll floor managers sent from here. 

Outspoken party leader Subramanium Swamy also discreetly pointed fingers at the Modi-Shah regime. He said the promises made in 2014, which helped the NDA come to power, need to be delivered for winning polls. “We won in 2014 on promise of anti-corruption drive, Hindutva hope and governance delivery. We need all three to win again,” Swamy tweeted.

A senior party leader, pointing an instance of flawed strategy, said the move to attack Nitish Kumar on development was wrong, since remote areas of Bihar were getting at leat 22 hours of regular power supply and the chief minister had provided roads to villages. He also remarked that Shah will have to tweak strategy in next elections to show more confidence in state and other central leaders who are equally experienced in politics.

Other reasons BJP leaders gave for the defeat were inability to sell NDA’s development agenda, RSS chief’s comment seeking review of caste-based reservation that converted polls into forward versus backward contest and NDA allies’ miserable performance. Of the 80 seats allies contested on, LJP got 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1.