BJP scores a duck in Modi, Rajnath seats

The party defended the results saying that the situation wasn’t as bad as was being painted. “We have won a total of 23 seats — four each in Kanpur and Shahjahanpur, three each in Bareilly and Jhansi, two each in Mathura and Faizabad, and one each in Agra, Allahabad and Babina. Two candidates, one each in Babina and Kanpur, have won with our support,” party’s state spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said. He, however, added that the results weren’t on expected lines. “We will review the results and address the lapses,” he said.

In Varanasi, all the seven seats were bagged by Independents while the BJP candidates stood second or third. “Modiji’s followers know only two things — either his image or the lotus symbol. Both were absent. So, we failed to explain to the people as to who was the candidate supported by us. Besides, while we chose to support qualitatively good candidates, those with money power managed to hold sway,” BJP’s regional president for Kashi (Varanasi), Laxman Acharya, said.

“The Muslim population in seven wards ranged from 30 per cent to 60 per cent. This may have had an impact,” said party’s Varanasi district president Azad Singh Gautam.

In Lucknow, elections were held for eight wards. BJP had contested on seven and could not win even one. All the seats were won by independents.

“Home Minister’s son (Pankaj Singh) had campaigned for the candidates, but failed to get even one seat,” quipped Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.

In Agra, only one BJP nominee has been elected while the other seven are independents.

“Last year they had lost the Assembly bypolls, where SP had won 8 seats, and now they have lost the Cantonment Board polls. An alert public is now sending out a clear message to the BJP. They had made so many promises when going to the Lok Sabha polls but now their Lok Sabha win cannot be repeated,” Chaudhary added.