Reasons for BJP’s success in Assembly bye elections

- Anil Narendra

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has won both the seats in the recent Assembly bye-elections. Dashrath Lodhi of BJP defeated Dr Tanya of Congress by a margin of 11,738 votes on Jabera seat in Madhya Pradesh, while in Bihar, the Purnia seat was won by BJP’s Kiran Kesari, defeating Ram Charitra Yadav of Congress by a margin of 23,665 votes. BJP has retained this seat. These impressive victories, once again confirm the deteriorating image and position of the Congress. The strong leadership in these States is another important factor in BJP’s impressive performance in these elections. The most important reason for sound image in BJP-ruled States is the party leader in those States. It is important that the party leader has a clean and sincere image and is sensitive towards the public, has control over bureaucracy and has right priorities. It is also important for a leader to keep his flock together and make them partners in power sharing. A committed hardcore BJP worker once told me a secret. He explained the important basic difference between BJP and the Congress. When Congress comes to power, it shares the comforts, benefits and awards of power with its workers, in other words, the worker, too is benefited, whereas, for BJP leaders, the worker is the saviour, but once the elections are over and it is time to share benefits of the power with him, the leaders become inaccessible, they shut themselves away from workers in their air-conditioned drawing rooms. Workers are not allowed even entry to their houses or offices. They want to enjoy fruits of power and privileges by themselves, they are averse to sharing the benefits of power with their workers. That is why the worker doesn’t come out in their support of his leader in the next elections and says that he is least bothered if netaji wins or looses. On the other hand, the Congress worker puts his best efforts in the next elections, as his interests are also involved in getting his leader elected. The BJP leadership in Madhya Pradesh must understand this simple equation, only then it may come to power there. If BJP has been able to achieve such an impressive success, it is due to the fact that Chief Minister of the State was from the party. Congress worker identifies himself with his leader and realizes that in case of any problem or seeking any favour, he can depend on his leader. The Congress leaders are able to win elections even in adverse conditions, as their workers labour relentlessly for the victory of their leaders.

Today, the central leadership of BJP is fraught with factionalism. Leaders are vying with each other with an eye on the primeministership and they are too busy in their own manipulations to have time for other things. They are engaged only in pulling each others’ legs. I am not the only one, who is saying such things, the senior party leader, Shri Lal Krishna Advani has himself accepted it. The former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, LK Advani has said that Party’s credibility as regard to the sincerity has suffered a dent. He said that factionalism is fast taking roots within the party and BJP might have to pay a heavy price for it. According to inner party sources, speaking at the inaugural session of a training camp for BJP councilors at Chhatarpur Mandir, Shri Advani said that party’s performance in Corporation has been far from satisfactory and party’s image of integrity has deteriorated. Praising Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in this regard, he said that the party is working there sincerely. He said that Delhi Pradesh BJP was, earlier plagued with factionalism, but now the factionalism is increasing day by day. He blamed some leaders of the party for this deteriorating image of the party. Probably, Shri Advani’s targets were the leaders of Delhi Pradesh BJP, but he succeeded in aiming a number of other persons also. The need of the hour is that the second level central BJP leadership should give up dreaming for the primeministership, instead BJP should project such a person as the future Prime Minister, who is capable of carrying whole party with him. I find three alternatives in the present leadership, who are experienced, whose image is clean, who can carry party workers with them and who are not too egotists to forget their roots. They are: Shri Lal Krishna Advani, Shri Murli Manohar Joshi and Shri Narendra Modi.