HVK Archives: Kalyan being blamed for BJP's dismal show
Kalyan being blamed for BJP's dismal show - The Indian Express
Arati R. Jerath
()
11 October 1996
Title : Kalyan being blamed for BJP's dismal show
Author : Arati R. Jerath
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : October 11, 1996
The BJP's poor showing in UP is being attributed in party
circles to three main factors - the overt Mandalisation
of the party, the lack of an emotive issue to subsume the
casteist nature of these elections and the poor selection
of candidates.
Although the party was on a favourable wicket this time,
given the three-way split in votes, it clearly failed to
capitalise on its advantages and enthuse its supporters.
This is underlined by the fact that the BJP's vote share
is likely to go down a point or two since the 1993 Assem-
bly polls.
Last night, BJP leaders attempted to explain away their
failure to win on a low turnout of voters. The figures,
that came in this morning, however, dispelled this argu-
ment as they proved that the turnout this time was the
highest since 1977. It was even higher than in 1993,
when the party had won 177 seats - 54.6 per cent as
against 53.6 per cent in 1993.
Obviously, while its opponents managed to get voters out
in their support, the BJP was unable to mobilise addi-
tional votes for itself.
While party strategists will do a detailed analysis only
after all the results are in, some angry insiders are
already pointing accusing fingers at former chief min-
ister Kalyan Singh for his aggressive pro-backward caste
stand, which is thought to have dampened cadre enthusiasm
and prevented the upper-caste consolidation for the BJP,
expected in the wake of the Congress-BSP alliance. At
the same time, it did not yield the desired increase in
the OBC support.
Although state unit president Kalraj Mishra is also being
attacked for fanning caste tensions within the party,
Singh may have to take most of the rap as he had a sub-
stantial say in the nominations.
Party circles feel that the blatant pandering to the
backward castes might have lost them 30 to 40 crucial
seats, which has made all the difference between sitting
in the opposition and forming the government in Lucknow.
An insider pointed out that while both Mulayam Singh and
Mayawati can openly appeal for votes on a caste basis,
the BJP cannot. It was thus bad politics to try and
fight the SP and the BSP with their own weapons. What
the BJP should have done was to have identified a single
emotive issue, which would have put its campaign on a
different plane altogether as in 1991, when the Ram
Mandir plank had overshadowed Mandal completely.
The campaign itself is also coming in for severe criti-
cism. Apart from the fact that there was no issue to
fire the imagination of the cadres and encourage them to
canvass aggressively for the party, there were logistical
and administrative failures galore.
The planning and execution of the entire campaign this
time was left to the state unit, at its insistence,
resulting in poor coordination between the state and the
central units. Posters did not reach in time, tour
programmes of major campaigners were messed up and so on,
small things but in a cadre based party, these had con-
tributed to the low-morale that was evident even before
the campaign started.
Clearly, the BJP has only itself to blame for its poor
performance in Uttar Pradesh. When party president L K
Advani and his office bearers met this morning to analyse
the results of the Assembly elections, they were forced
to face this disconcerting fact.
The official reaction was thus muted. "We are satisfied
that we have maintained our primacy but we are disap-
pointed that we have not secured a majority," spokesman
Yashwant Sinha said.
With the mood at the party headquarters so bleak, there
was little attempt on the part of the leadership to chalk
out a plan of action for the coming days of uncertainty
in Lucknow. "We will wait and see," said general secre-
tary Venkaiah Naidu. "We decided this morning that we
need not do anything. The next 24 hours will make the
alignments clear. Then we will discuss what our next
step should be."
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