Sir — This refers to the editorial “Revival of a narrative” (October 17). The huge margin of defeat in the lokSabha by-election in Gurdaspur (Punjab) for the BJP must be understood in terms of humiliation, whatever the reasons may be. Though the electorate in Punjab had recently rejected the BJP-SAD alliance in the State Assembly election, yet the fact is that the Gurdaspur lok Sabha seat has been a solid turf for the BJP for more than a decade and there has not been any remarkable negative feeling towards the BJP as an organisation in the constituency.
The common man in the street too has not yet lost faith in the Central leadership of the BJP and the Union Government under Narendra Modi, butperhaps the cadres in Punjab have lost the confidence of the people and, thus, were not able to translate the clean and progressive image of Modi into votes. The implementation problems of the GST may too be a cause of anger among the business community, but the failure to communicate the consensus on GST meant a transfer of popular vote to the political party which claims to be the pioneer of the GST philosophy.
The voters of Punjab had exhibited a unique pattern in the 2014 lok Sabha poll too when four candidates were elected on the AAP ticket. The BJP leadership cannot afford to lose Punjab in the 2019 General Election if it is serious about retaining power at Centre, and it will need to put in a lot of effort.