BJP workers blame ‘black sheep’ for defeat

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Despite being rejected by the electorate in the recentlyheld Assembly elections, the opposition BJP does not seem to have learnt its lesson with the infighting now coming out in the public domain much to the dismay of party workers.

Senior Congress leaders, despite differences of opinion, decided to unite as they knew that their first job was to deliver the promises made to the people during the election.

On the other hand, defeated BJP candidates and noted leaders in several constituencies have been revealing the names of all those who indirectly worked for the Congress candidates in the Assembly polls.

They have poured out their woes in the presence of former chief minister B.S.Yediyurappa and others. The BJP high command has formed six teams that have been visiting specific regions to interact with workers and boost the morale of defeated candidates.

Now state leaders are getting ground reports about how and why BJP candidates lost in the May 10 Assembly polls despite the previous government doling out several schemes and hiking the reservation for SC/ST, Lingayats, Vokkaligas and backward classes.

The main culprit behind the humiliating defeat was the ‘adjustment’ politics as alleged by the Mysuru-Kodagu BJP MP Pratap Simha, at the state and local level, say pary workers.

The candidates who had taken the election seriously and spent crores of rupees with the hope of becoming MLAs, took state leaders to task for turning a deaf ear to their complaints about those who were working against their candidacy.

Had such elements been kicked out from the party, the BJP would have given a tough fight to Congress candidates no matter whether they won or lost, these candidates feel. Yediyurappa who attended two such meetings in Bengaluru City on Sunday, was shocked to hear about the ‘backstabbing’ by leaders in many constituencies by joining hands with opponents.

Loyal candidates asserted that they would not attend the meeting till the black sheep were removed from the dais. They openly explained how those elements worked against party candidates and wanted the expulsion of such persons.

The former CM promised to bring their views to the notice of Delhi leaders and set things right before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He appealed to them not to air their views in public as that would send a wrong signal to lakhs of workers.

Some of them are planning to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi to explain to him why the party lost in the Assembly polls despite the campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.