BJP'S FIVE MISTAKES MAY CAUSE THEIR DEFEAT IN DELHI

With the various exit poll results of Delhi Assembly elections flowing in, it seems that the BJP had lost the battle for the national capital. Various exit polls have given the Aam Aadmi Party an edge over the BJP.

The various exit poll results are the following as of 3pm:-

The India Today-Cicero           AAP (35-43)     BJP (23-29)      Cong (3-5)

 Cvoter                                     AAP (31-39)     BJP (27-35)      Cong (2-4)

The Axis                                   AAP (53)          BJP (17)            Cong (0)

These exit polls may be or may not be correct. But, as a proud BJP supporter, I would like to see the party learning from its mistakes as it gears for various state elections in Bihar, Kerala, Assam, Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

I would like to point out certain mistakes by the party during the Delhi election preperations.

                                                 Arvind Kejriwal speaking @ Delhi

Mistake 1:- Too late for calling assembly elections

BJP had shot itself in the leg by not calling for assembly elections in June 2014, just after the Lok Sabha elections. If the elections were held then, the BJP would have won hands down, riding on Modiji’s popularity. But, the party I think was misled by the party MLAs who were not intrested in fighting an elections soon after the elections in 2013 December. It was a fatal mistake which gave AAP the time to regroup and strike back.

                      Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Nitin Gadkari other BJP leaders in Delhi

Mistake 2:- Complacency of the BJP workers

It was so easy to notice a sense of complacency among the party workers. The back-to-back victories in various state elections after the historic triumph in the Lok Sabha polls lulled them into complacency. They failed to keep their ears to the ground and gauge the popular support for the party. In the Lok Sabha polls, party workers and the RSS cadre conducted door-to-door campaigns as well as social media blitzkrieg to mobilize the voters. But this time, there was no such efforts. The party started preperations very late after AAP had gone so far.

On the other hand, our political adversary, the AAP had learnt from their mistakes made during the Lok Sabha polls. They decided not contest elsewhere (Maharashtra, Haryana), but to concentrate all their efforts and resources available on the national capital. This gave them in getting more time for approaching the voters at the ground level. It seems that the minorities as well as most poor has courted the AAP. It seems that AAP’s 49-day anarchic rule has been forgotten by the people.

Mistake 3:- Kiran Bedi as Chief Ministerial Candidate

Parachuting Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate was the biggest mistake made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah. Kiran Bedi may have been a tough cop and a popular anti-corruption activist, but she was an outsider to the party. Making an outsider the face of the party might not have gone down well among the party’s cadre as well as its traditional supporters. I feel BJP should have made Harsh Vardhan their face in this election.

                                            BJP President Amit Shah with Kiran Bedi

Mistake 4:- Misreading AAP’s ground support

I think the BJP was not able to understand the people’s perceptions about the AAP. They thought that Kejriwal’s 49-day tenure as Chief Minister will deter the people from voting for AAP. But, it has not happened since BJP party mechanism in Delhi was lying dormant till January.

Another aspect that hurt the BJP was ironically the steep decline of the Congress. Most of the traditional votes of the Congress seems to have directly went to the Aam Aadmi Party. The minority vote consolidation along with the support of anti-BJP parties (Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (U), Left parties etc) have aided AAP by adding small, but valuable votes to its tally.

Mistake 5:- Failed to notice Delhi’s peculiar nature

The BJP had forgotten the results of opinion polls before the Lok Sabha elections that they prefer Modi for PM and Kejriwal for CM. The people of Delhi had prefered a BJP govt at the Centre and an AAP Sarkar in the state. This was Kejriwal’s trump card. He kept on reminding the people that this is an assembly election and Modi can’t be the CM of Delhi. The BJP should have countered this with aggressive organizational structure and clean face like Harsh Vardhan, but unfortunately it didn’t.

What Next?

What seems is that the BJP has become the rabbit in the famous story of race between tortoise and the rabbit. But BJP is no way down nationally. It is still on the upswing on popularity. Delhi will be a just temporary phenomenon. It must learn from these mistakes while preparing for the future elections. It will help the party to be the face of the Indian politics.

There is nothing more important than learning from past mistakes. The party must rein in infighting in its various state units, strengthen the organizational structure as well good leaders with clean image. This would help them in the coming elections.

Exit polls are not the final verdict. Let us still wait for it on coming Tuesday.