Swelling further the band of BJP dissidents, now vociferous in the aftermath of the stunning poll drubbing in Bihar, former Union Minister of State and member of BJP national working committee, Satpal Maharaj said that his failure to address enough of campaign meetings is the resultant of the security excesses for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election rallies that had helped the grand alliance to crush the BJP.
"The BJP has won in 15 seats from 25 areas I had extensively campaigned in. I was ready to campaign in 45 other places, but could not get the clearance as the security personnel, engaged in ensuring security for the PM's rallies, had declared the venues as no-flying zones," he said. However, in the same breath, he, who has a mass following across the country, particularly the Hindi-speaking belt, said the people's mandate in Bihar should be accepted gracefully in keeping with the strong democratic traditions the country has been nurturing.
Notably, Maharaj had switched to BJP from Congress during the General Election 2014.
He said that BJP had won 15 out of 53 seats in places he had campaigned for the party candidates during the electioneering. "I am convinced that the party would have won more seats had I been allowed to campaign in 45 more areas as planned by the party. But I could not reach as my chopper was not allowed to fly because of the Prime Minister's scheduled rallies. This is unfortunate," Maharaj said.
He reiterated that earlier he had canvassed for BJP, resulting in the party winning enough seats to form governments in a few states. "Even during the general election 2014, I canvassed extensively and several BJP candidates won thanks to that," he said.
To buttress his point of how deep his mass following is, he said that as the MP from Garhwal, he had ensured the victories of several leaders of the Congress-the party he was in that time- during the Uttarakhand Assembly election-2012.
"I am sure the party would get to the bottom of the electoral rout in Bihar and derive lessons from it to face the future elections confidently," he said.
Sounding confident that BJP would regain power in Uttarakhand in the 2017 Assembly election, he said that to ensure that, the party must firm up a flawless strategy. "The mistakes should not repeat," he said.
It would be pertinent to mention here that Satpal Maharaj was elected twice from Garhwal lok Sabha constituency on Congress ticket. However, his relation with Congress had strained in 2014 after he was ignored during the time when the party was engaged in finding an alternative to the then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. Observers say he himself had staked his claim to the chair of the Chief Minister.
He had remained in a sulk mode since Harish Rawat was made the CM replacing Bahuguna in February 2014. He had quit Congress and joined BJP when electioneering was on for the 2014 general election. Consequently, he was pressed into campaigning in several states across the Hindi heartland, a move that fetched the party good dividends.