There is a demand for introspection within the BJP that why so many mayor seats were lost?
There is a demand for introspection within the BJP that why so many mayor seats were lost?
The BJP may have termed the Madhya Pradesh civic election results as “historic”, but ironically it went to polls with all 16 sitting mayors and lost almost half of them, including traditional strongholds like Gwalior, Jabalpur and Rewa. were involved.
Since these elections are being seen as the semi-finals of the assembly elections to be held 14 months from now, the scoreline has given a lot of hope to the Congress. And despite the official BJP line of “historic victory”, there have been calls for introspection within the party as to why so many mayoral seats were lost.
Its leaders say that reading the subtext of the loss is as important as the consequences. They point to how the BJP lost both mayor posts in the Gwalior-Chambal belt (Gwalior and Morena), which allowed the Congress to take a dig at its former member Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched loyalties two years ago. In Katni – part of the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat, which is represented by BJP state president VD Sharma – the party lost to its own rebel, Preeti Sanjeev Suri, who contested as an independent. Thus it lost two out of three seats (Aam Aadmi Party from Singrauli and Congress from Rewa) in Vindhya region, where it had performed well in the last assembly election.
‘Loss worrisome’
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has been more vocal than others about the defeat. “I cannot deny that Gwalior’s loss is worrying,” he told a local TV channel on Thursday. Mr. Vijayvargiya said the entry of a group [Mr. Scindia and his supporters] The party had to be strengthened. “If we have lost there, we have to think about the reasons for it.
There were differences of opinion between Mr Scindia and Union Minister and Morena MP Narendra Singh Tomar, which delayed the announcement of the candidate. A party leader said that if these differences are not resolved, it could become a major headache for selection in the assembly elections to be held next year.
After the declaration of the final results on Wednesday, efforts were made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and State President Mr. Sharma to refer to the loss of the Mayor’s post.
In Katni, which comes under my constituency, both the candidates [the winner Priti Suri and Jyoti Dikshit whom she defeated] were BJP workers, and even among the 45 corporators who were elected, 27 are from the BJP. Similarly, majority of the newly elected councilors of Gwalior, Singrauli and Jabalpur are from our party,” Mr Sharma said.
‘Unfinished victory’
Shri Chouhan described the victory of Congress on five seats. win unfinished (incomplete victory)”. “The mayor may be theirs but most of the corporators are with us,” he said.
While they point to the fact that most of the newly elected members of these urban bodies, including municipal corporations and councils, are from the BJP, many party leaders privately attribute the selection of the mayoral candidate to the Congress.
A BJP leader said the party’s continued quest to broaden its social reach by diversifying representation could result in selections that harass even upper-caste voters, who live in regions like Vindhyas and Gwalior-Chambal. play an important role.
Congress take
Congress has its own opinion on less number of councilors to be elected as compared to BJP. “This time the number is one and a half times more than the 2015 elections. The BJP has used the administration and collectors. Given that the difference in Burhanpur and Ujjain was less than 1,000 votes, we have reasons to believe that we won seven mayoral seats from them, not five,” said KK Mishra, Congress media in-charge of MP
While the Congress alleges that the state machinery worked for the BJP, it also has to do some self-discovery. Three sitting MLAs lost the elections and some mayoral victories had no effect in the wards, which the BJP claims was a sign of the mayoral candidates’ personal image rather than the massive public support in favor of the party. ,
The rise of AAP and AIMIM has created even more complicated matters for the Congress, a possibility their spokespersons have not ruled out.