New Delhi: Over-reliance on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the negative effect of the ‘400-paar’ slogan, the impact of protests by farmers and wrestlers and the induction of defectors from the Congress — a review conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pinpointed these as the key reasons for its tally in Rajasthan tumbling down to 14 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats, ThePrint has learnt.
This is a precipitous decline from its triumphs in the two preceding general elections. It pulled off a clean sweep of all 25 seats in 2014 and secured 24 in 2019, with an ally winning the remaining seat.
The BJP’s central leadership sought a report from the state unit after this setback, according to party sources. Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma also met with the prime minister in New Delhi Monday.
The state unit held its review meeting last week. Senior party leaders including CM Sharma, state president C.P. Joshi, former leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore and the candidates who lost the elections, among others, were in attendance.
“During the discussion, it became apparent that the Scheduled Caste (SC) vote bank that had been voting for us drifted from us due to the ‘400-paar’ slogan, which was used by the Congress to raise allegations that the Constitution would be amended and reservation would be done away with. While the Congress workers were quite aggressive in their approach, BJP workers seemed indifferent,” said a senior BJP leader.
The ‘400-paar’ slogan also meant that many felt they would be able to win simply by relying on Modi’s brand value, he added. “The workers were not working the way they should have. The fact we had won the assembly elections should have helped us perform better but the workers became complacent,” he said.
He further said: “Everyone thought that they would get votes in the name of Modi ji. They didn’t do the amount of work that should have been done, and the results are plain to see.”
The party is now gearing up for by-elections to five assembly seats.
Another BJP functionary said “wrong” ticket distribution, the impact of the farmers’ movement, the Agnipath scheme and the wrestlers’ protests all led to the party’s tally coming down, especially in the Shekhawati region.
“The party was not able to counter the Congress’s portrayal of the BJP as anti-farmer in the Shekhawati region and the Opposition was able to highlight and focus on the farm laws and the Agnipath scheme,” said the functionary.
Caste equations, induction of defectors
Another senior leader said the caste equations within the state unit have also left a section of the party upset.
“The chief minister is a Brahmin, the state president is a Brahmin, a number of other leaders occupying top posts are Brahmins, so now the party is debating whether to change the state president, too. Discussions are on,” said the leader.
He added: “It was also highlighted that there is still a situation of disunity in the state unit. The local party worker is upset over the induction of party leaders from the outside and how they were given seats or important positions in the party.”
Speaking to ThePrint earlier, another party functionary said that the party’s denial of a ticket to sitting Churu MP Rahul Kaswan — who proceeded to switch to the Congress and retain his seat — also created an impression that the Jat community was not “treated well” by the BJP.
Kaswan was denied a ticket in favour of Paralympic gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia. Although both are from the Jat community, Kaswan accused Rajput leader Rajendra Rathore of being behind the denial of a ticket, exacerbating polarisation along caste lines.
“The Jat-Rajput dispute started with the release of the BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates on 1 March and was further fuelled by Parshottam Rupala’s controversial statement,” said the leader. Remarks made by Rupala — a Union minister from Gujarat — in March had sparked a backlash from Rajputs in his state and elsewhere.
Sources further said the current situation in the state unit was such that enthusiasm was not building up among the party workers. “Many party candidates have also pointed out that there was internal sabotage,” said a leader.