The Uttar Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janata Party sees consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of SP-BSP-RLD alliance partners and failure of Congress to get votes as the primary reason for the defeat of its candidates in western Uttar Pradesh, the region where the party suffered maximum loss in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the state.
The BJP state leaders held a review meeting in which the performance of the party was discussed threadbare. The focus was obviously on the resounding victory of the party in the face of the mahagathbandhan formed by Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal. They also dissected the results to find out the reasons for the loss of the party in western UP.
“The party lost nine seats in 2019 compared to what it won in the 2014 parliamentary elections and the maximum loss was in western UP. Reports of the booth in-charges suggest that the BJP lost because of consolidation of Muslim votes. Majority of the seats won by the BSP are where Muslims and Dalit votes proved decisive,” a senior BJP leader told The Pioneer on Thursday.
The BJP lost nine seats this time – seven in western UP and two in eastern UP. In the 2014 general elections, the BJP and its ally had won 73 seats in UP of which BJP’s share was 71 while in this election, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal have won 64 seats with BJP’s share being 62 seats.
The BJP lost the prestigious Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat where party’s sitting MP Raghav Lakhanpal was defeated by Haji Fazlur Rahman of the BSP by over 22,000 votes. The SP-BSP-RLD leaders had started their poll campaign from Deoband in Saharanpur where Mayawati had given a call to Muslims to vote unitedly in favour of the alliance partners. For this statement, she was barred by the Election Commission from electioneering for 48 hours but the voters took her advice very seriously.
The BJP suffered the worst defeat in Moradabad division comprising six parliamentary constituencies where it lost all the seats. BJP’s loss was gathbandhan’s gain as the SP and the BSP shared the seats equally between them. All these seats were earlier held by BJP.
The BJP, during the review of the poll results, took solace from the fact that the party was able to get votes of the MBCs (Most Backward Classes) because the BJP candidate lost only in Nagina by a margin of over one lakh votes while in other constituencies, the margin of defeat was in thousands.
“Another reason for BJP’s defeat in western UP could be the failure of Congress to get a good chunk of votes. Their failure led to our defeat,” the BJP leader said.
The SP won Moradabad, Sambhal and Rampur Lok Sabha seats while the BSP bagged the Amroha, Bijnore and Nagina seats.
