Why saffron saw a red light

A festive mood prevailed at 14, Pandit Pant Marg, the office of the Delhi BJP, till Sunday evening, with senior leaders enjoying chaat and discussing possible ministers.

A festive mood prevailed at 14, Pandit Pant Marg, the office of the Delhi BJP, till Sunday evening, with senior leaders enjoying chaat and discussing possible ministers. A mere 24 hours later, the same office wore a deserted look, with everyone having gone into a huddle to discuss 8216;what went wrong8217;. Senior leaders claim a mixture of several factors led to the debacle but the majority view is that overconfidence took the party down.

Insiders also claim that the stature of BJP candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra did not match that of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. 8220;The young voter was not attracted to him. The atmosphere was completely different in 1993, when Madan Lal Khurana won. His darbars used to be teeming with workers, while Malhotra was not in touch with them,8221; a senior leader said.

Reacting to the defeat, the party leadership issued hackneyed statements. 8220;We are shocked and will go back, and analyse the reasons for our defeat,8221; Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, who won his seat with just a margin of 3,000 votes, said. Several heads, it seems, are set to roll after the defeat.

The party8217;s negative campaign, some others claim, also took its toll. Others say the process of defeat started during the MCD elections itself. There were too many chief ministerial candidates going around. They were unhappy at being ignored and include Vijay Goel and Harsh Vardhan. 8220;During the MCD elections, Malhotra chose the candidates himself and stalwarts like Sahib Singh Verma left party meetings in a huff. The same thing was repeated this time by Vijay Goel,8221; an insider said.

The party8217;s decision to not give tickets to MCD councillors also proved costly. 8220;The councillors didn8217;t work at all during the campaign. Several councillors, who could have won seats, were ignored entirely. They didn8217;t perform in the last one year, which also worked against us,8221; another leader said.

The Delhi BJP also wasn8217;t supported by RSS cadres, which usually work at the grassroots level for the party, this time. Several party leaders said the RSS was not consulted or even taken into confidence.

8220;We looked good on paper but on the ground, no one worked. Till the last day, party leaders did not bother to check the voters list, while the Congress managed to sneak in several fake voters,8221; a former MLA said.

Story continues below this ad

Insiders are also blaming the party8217;s Delhi chief, Harsh Vardhan, who they say didn8217;t take active interest in delimitation and allowed the Congress to carve out a favourable mix of voters in each constituency.