BJP looks for reasons after defeat from Cong in Delhi

With BJP failing to defeat Congress in Delhi for the third consecutive time, its leaders searched for the causes with some guessing that it could be anything between "development" by Congress to portraying older leader as Chief Ministerial face.

With BJP failing to defeat Congress in Delhi for the third consecutive time, its leaders on Monday searched for the causes with some guessing that it could be anything between "development" by Congress to portraying older leader as Chief Ministerial face.

HT Image

As the party promised to introspect, some BJP leaders wondered whether the choice of candidates and poll plank of terrorism and inflation could have failed the party in wooing the voters of the national capital.

"The Delhi results are surprising as we had expected a majority," said BJP president Rajnath Singh after Congress emerged victorious for the third successive time.

Singh said local issues dominated the elections in Delhi and claimed the voters had made up their mind well in advance about their choice of leaders.

Former party president Venkaiah Naidu said it was a time for "analysis" as factors like candidate selection have resulted in "a lot of damage".

BJP chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra said "We will certainly review why our candidates could not win in some seats that were considered our stronghold".

She even conceded that new voters could have preferred Congress because of the "developmental works like Metro, flyovers and roads."