BJP says seat setback in UP not a reflection of 2019 election results

Vivekanand Gupta

In an age of instant coffee and instant expertise, theories are being doled and rolled out about the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) loss of face and ballots in Uttar Pradesh. Three seats lost including Gorakhpur and Phulpur is indication that the lotus is withering, but Mumbai's BJP bigwigs scoff at the claim.

One way
Ameet Mehta, BJP secretary and president of the party's legal cell in Mumbai says that, "the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) has a different kind of vote bank, these are backward classes, a section of Dalits and a segment of Muslims who voted for the alliance. What was key in the win was that the division of votes did not happen, and the votes went in one direction only."

Study time
Mehta though dismissed the "huge setback" definition touted by political analysts and insisted that though he had a keen ear, "I certainly cannot hear any warning bells ringing for 2019 that is the wrong word to use. Yes, but the party will have to gets its act together and study the voting pattern minutely."

Ameet Mehta

Remember Tripura
Asked to look at the results through a Maharashtra prism, where political followers say the State is disenchanted with the party and there is a stereotype of Hindu hardline ideology running through the party, Mehta rebuffed that saying, "In UP a couple of local issues also played a part in the by poll results. Here, in the State the accent is on development. The vote bank will not think about caste but whether this or that candidate from a party will be able to deliver and do my work that is vital here," finishing with, "If there is an anti-BJP sentiment, why did the party win in Tripura?"

Corrupt alliance
For Shaina NC, BJP spokesperson and treasurer, Maharashtra, "it is important to keep things in perspective. People are going on and on about the losses but remember UP was a by-election and only 37 per cent of the people came out to vote." She called the SP-BSP coming together, "a corrupt alliance with a lust for power."

Shaina N C

Sweeping mandate
The treasurer-spokesperson though insisted that the party 'is not in denial mode about this loss. We need to introspect and get into election mode." She said it was important to remember, "The election of 2014 when people across the board voted development instead of division." When Shaina was told that there is a stereotype, and while stereotypes may be wrong but they have some basis that the BJP is encouraging communalism and has a Hindutva hardline ideology, Shaina shot back, "that is totally untrue. If it was the case, how did we get a mandate like we did on 2014 when we won on the development plank?"

Don't chill
For BJP Mumbai secretary Vivekanand Gupta to cite the loss as a "huge setback' is akin to stretching things all the way from Mumbai to the Varanasi ghats. Gupta accedes, "We have lost prestigious seats but I would call this an eye-opener. It will also show us the importance of not slipping into relax mode." Gupta brazens that, "We do not have to worry about 2019, look at all the development everywhere. Local issues came to the fore in UP, but we have to see what went wrong but gear up the party workers for the road ahead."

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