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Short-lived joy: 5-state reality check tempers BJP mood in Pune
The party workers distributed sweets while hailing Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the victory
A day after the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) registered an impressive win in the civic elections in Maharashtra, the joy for party’s Pune and western Maharashtra unit was short-lived as the elections results in five states were not very encouraging for the party.
The BJP even got a word of advice from its associate Member of parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Kakade, who said the outcome in the five states election has increased the worries for the party. “I was expecting that the party may win elections in Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh. However the outcome is worrying,” said Kakade.
For the local unit of the party, the celebrations after results in Dhule and Ahmednagar turned into a sombre atmosphere at the BJP office on Jungli Maharaj road. In contrast, the mood was jubilant at the Congress Bhavan where party workers held celebrations for the win in Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh.
The party workers distributed sweets while hailing Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the victory. “We believe that the victory in three major states was due to hard work of Rahul as well as the people of those states,” said city Congress chief Ramesh Bagwe. Another congress leader Mohan Joshi said, “BJP lost the election due to corruption and its anti-poor and anti-farmer policies.”
Earlier on Monday, BJP recorded an impressive in Dhule Municipal Corporation while in Ahmednagar civic body polls, Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party. In Dhule, BJP improved its tally from three in 2013 to 50 out of 74 seats, wresting the power in this north Maharashtra town for the first time.
However the results of five states including Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram have been a dampener for BJP.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is planning to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with Congress welcomed the verdict. NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar while appealing party workers to work hard said in the future NCP will defeat the BJP. “From here on, party workers should have only one target before them which is to defeat BJP. There may be a possibility that we have to give up some seats to Congress as both parties are planning to contest polls together. However, workers should not be disappointed with this,” said Pawar while addressing party members in Mumbai.
‘We forgot the issue of development’
Sanjay Kakade, Bharatiya Janata Party’s associate MP in Rajya Sabha, on Tuesday hinted that his party’s focus on building the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and statues along with changing names of cities had contributed to the party’s poor showing in the Assembly elections in five states.
“I knew we would lose in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but MP trends have come as a surprise. I think we forgot the issue of development that Modi took up in 2014. Ram Mandir, statues and name-changing became the focus,” Kakade said immediately after the poll results were out.
Kakade, who is aspiring to contest Lok Sabha elections from Pune, also asked party to give importance to workers, who “feel” neglected in the party.
