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Introduction: Vajpayee says Delhi results much worse than expected, it’s time for introspection
In a candid admission, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said his government was responsible 'up to some extent' for the Bharatiya Janata Party's recent debacle in the recent state Assembly elections as well as in the municipal polls in Delhi and called for 'introspection' in this regard.
'To some extent, the Centre is also responsible for the recent outcome of the Assembly elections in four states as well as local body polls in Delhi. I think there is a need for introspection and analysis of these results (within the BJP),' he told reporters.
The states that held Assembly elections last month besides Uttaranchal, included Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur where the BJP and its allies faced a drubbing. In Delhi, the BJP suffered severe humiliation in the hands of the Congress.
Referring to BJP's defeat in the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls in Delhi, Vajpayee said 'though we had apprehensions of defeat, we did not expect that results would be so had for the party.'
The Prime Minister's remarks come dose on the heels of the criticism by Delhi BJP members of Parliament and other senior leaders of the Union Budget. The leaders feel that the budget presented by Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha had upset the BJP's vote bank up the middle class in the national capital and was one of the main reasons for the party's defeat in the Delhi local polls.
The Prime Minister said the reasons behind the defeat of the BJP may have been different in each of the state that faced Assembly elections last month. 'In Punjab, the Akali Dal was defeated but its performance was not bad. However, the BJP faced a drubbing at the hustings,' he said.
The Prime Minister said that with regard to its debacle in Uttaranchal, his party had paid the price for “overconfidence”.
“When I had visited the state (Uttaranchal) during the elections, I cautioned the party leaders not to be overconfident about the results,' he informed newsmen.
The Prime Minister, who is here on a three-day private visit to this tourist resort of Kumoan, rendered his latest poem on persistent demand from mediapersons. After his famous poems, 'Haar Nahi Manoonga' (I will not accept defeat) and 'Geet Naya Gata Hoon' (I sing a new song), it is 'Geet Nahi Gata Hoon' (I do not sing a song) this time.
On being asked about any new composition
that he had been inspired to pen down in Nainital, the Prime Minister quipped
-Akaash main badal humid rahe hain, Shayaad barsaat ho jaye” (There are
clouds, it may rain). Was the Prime Minister wishing aloud that the bad
days would be left behind? – Agencies
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