BJP’s defeated blame their MPs

In bypolls marked by his pitch against “love jihad”, chief campaigner Yogi Adityanath disowned responsibility for the defeats. “Poll results depend on candidate selection, organisational structure and strategy. I was not involved in any of these; my responsibility was only campaigning,” he said. “The BJP won Lucknow East and Noida, where I campaigned, and could have won Thakurdwara and Nighasan too had I gone there.” He said his Hindutva and “love jihad” themes, in fact, helped the party. “If we could win Noida, Saharanpur and Lucknow East despite misuse of state government machinery, we could have won other seats too.”

Among candidates who blamed their MPs was Sirathu candidate Santosh Singh Patel. He alleged he had been “betrayed” and vowed to complain to the party leadership. “Senior local party leaders including MP Keshav Maurya worked against me. Bharwari Nagar panchayat chairman Sanjay Gupta and district vice-president Ajay Tripathi too campaigned against me.”

Geeta Singh finished third in Charkhari, vacated by Uma Bharti. “Geetaji is shocked and is not talking to the media,” said Dileep Kumar, her brother-in-law and a veteran party leader.  “Umaji developed Charkhari but local people were not happy because she never attended any local event or addressed any problems of locals,” he said. He said several party leaders including two zonal presidents who had responsibility for at least 42 polling booths did not cooperate, and 32 denied BJP ticket aspirants turned rebel.

Nighasan candidate Ram Kumar Verma said MLA-turned-MP Ajay Mishra “Teni” worked against him because the party had denied one of his relatives the ticket. “Ajay Mishra threatened party workers and mandal presidents, and asked them to campaign against me,” he said.

In Balha, Akshaibar Lal blamed MP Sadhvi Savitri Bai Phule. “Her supporters campaigned against me. The party had denied the ticket to her uncle.”

In Moradabad, district BJP president Satyapal Saini said MP Sarvesh Singh did not cooperate with Thakurdwara candidate Rajpal Singh Chauha because the party had denied the ticket to his son. He also alleged mismanagement. And in Hamirpur, Jagdish Prasad said, “Some local leaders did not support me. I will a send a report when the party top leadership reviews the results.”

The Bijnor candidate, Hemendra Pal, said he had been hoping Hindu votes would be polarised after Yogi’s rally there, but that did not happen. He felt he lost because the party had declared his name very late, giving him only 11 days for canvassing. Pal said nearly 34 party leaders demanding the ticket refused to support him.

BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai was not available for comment.