When the exit polls predicted a BJP rout in the Delhi Assembly polls, both Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari were quick to rubbish the prediction and make emphatic claims that the saffron party will win 45-48 seats.
In a wedding reception on Monday here, Shah repeated his claim to reporters in an informal chat. Tiwari did the same during the last two days.
It is one thing to make such “moral boosting” claims before the voting day, but to stick to the same assessment even after the exit polls prediction — and that too by top leadership of the party — was something that came as a big surprise. As it turned out, both Shah and Tiwari were proven utterly wrong, living one wonder whether they failed to read the voters’ pulse.
This raises another question: Did the BJP leadership planned an erroneous campaign by not understanding the mindset of the Delhi voters? The aggressive campaign where tongues were used as weapons may have helped the BJP raise its vote share to 39 per cent, but it failed miserably in making any dent in Kejriwal’s support base.
Now that the dust has settled and the BJP is talking about “introspection” and “reviews”, the question doing the round is “who will be held responsible for the debacle?”
While Tiwari has come forward to place his head on the chopping block by owning responsibility for the defeat, it is well known that he had limited say in deciding the nature of the campaign.
Obviously, someone like Manoj Tiwari could not have brought nearly 250 MPs, a dozen CMs and hundreds of MLAs from all part of the country to contribute to the “war cry” against Kejriwal.
However, it is unlikely that anyone from the Central leadership will pay the price for the debacle. It is equally unlikely that any State unit leader could be made the fall guy, because public is not going to be
convinced that State leaders had any say in the whole proceedings. Given the situation, it will be interesting to see how the BJP tries to fix responsibility for a disastrous performance in Delhi.