New Delhi: From sweeping all 25 seats in 2014 and winning 24 seats in 2019 to leading in only 14 seats in Rajasthan so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has registered an underwhelming performance in Rajasthan, barely six months after it won the assembly elections.
This can be attributed to several factors — the sidelining of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, the below-par performance of her successor Bhajan Lal Sharma, and rebellion by those denied tickets and dissensions among leaders.
Initial trends till 2.30 pm suggest that the BJP is leading on 14 seats and the INDIA bloc on 11 seats.
The BJP high command sprung a surprise last December, appointing first-term MLA Sharma as the CM after it won the Rajasthan polls comfortably despite many within the BJP eyeing the post. His “administrative inexperience” has become a talking point in the power corridors.
To make it worse, Sharma seems to be under siege from within as ministers in his government and senior BJP leaders are publicly airing lapses in his governance over a water crisis amid the heatwave.
The choice of Sharma was also a clear signal of the party’s intent to look beyond two-term CM Vasundhara Raje, who became Rajasthan’s first woman CM in 2003. Despite being a star campaigner, the five-time MP and six-time MLA Raje’s conspicuous absence from election campaigning had raised eyebrows.
“The party had not specifically given her any election-related responsibility, so she had confined herself, keeping her son’s interest in mind. She campaigned but largely for her son,” said a senior BJP leader.
Another party leader said Raje was also not formally invited to be a part of the public rallies held by PM Modi. “For Lok Sabha elections, the focus was PM Modi, and it has got nothing to do with her or disrespecting her. The entire campaign was about PM Modi’s guarantees,” said another leader.
The sitting MPs of the BJP, fielded by the party this election, had to face “massive” anti-incumbency, and the “inexperience” of CM Sharma also affected the campaigning, according to BJP leaders.
Water crisis and “misgovernance” also seem to have affected the BJP’s tally as the Opposition focused on the “misrule” of five months of the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led government.
The BJP, which decisively won Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in the November assembly polls, selected fresh faces to lead all three states in this LS polls, leading to disgruntlement within the party. In at least seven seats, the party had received reports of resentment among BJP leaders and tried to address it. In Rajasthan, the BJP had dropped 12 sitting MPs out of 24.
Senior BJP leader and minister Kirodi Lal Meena Monday said he would resign from his post if the party loses the Dausa seat. Weeks ago, he also wrote a letter to CM Sharma, asking him to recall a housing project in Jaipur, citing losses to the state exchequer.
The pressure is already mounting on the CM to not only manage the state of affairs in the state but also be held accountable for the loss.
The party’s decision to deny a ticket to two-time Churu MP Rahul Kaswan also led to voices of dissent emerging — while Kaswan joined the Congress, many others, upset over ticket distribution, “did not give their 100% to the campaign”. The BJP fielded paralympic javelin thrower Devendra Jhajhariya from Churu instead of Kaswan, a Jat MP. Two-time former MP Jaswant Bishnoi had posted a series of cryptic tweets after being denied a ticket.
In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, BJP won 24 seats, and its alliance partner Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won one seat by focusing on Brand Modi while displaying organisational prowess. The BJP had secured a massive vote share of 59.07% in the 2019 LS polls, and after winning the 2023 Rajasthan assembly elections, it was hoping to perform better.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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