NEW DELHI: The heavy losses of Lok Sabha seats suffered in Rajasthan by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought focus on the new leadership led by chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, who was capacitated after the BJP’s assembly elections win last year. According to leaders, the saffron camp failed to retain seats because of his “weak leadership”.
There are apprehensions within the BJP camp that Bhajan Lal Sharma is not being able to handle the party leaders and not being able to mobilise the workers. The infirm political approach of the CM was reflected in weak numbers as the saffron camp was unsuccessful in sweeping the state for the third time. The party in the last two Lok Sabha elections grabbed around 25 seats (out of 25) however this time lost 11 seats to Congress in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
A political analyst said, “Barring few seats, Congress did not expect winning seats in double digits. Because there is a popular sentiment in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So the flow of votes was towards the BJP. But many factors played out in favour of Congress including the Bhajan Lal’s weak understanding of the constituencies.”
According to a BJP insider, he (Bhajan Lal) had tried to build a narrative on different lines in Rajasthan which the BJP leadership had disliked. Bhajan Lal was, according to sources privy to the developments, called up by a leader from the top leadership of the party and rebuked for his poorly thought activities.
Another BJP leader said, “Bhajan Lal then stopped speaking about what he was thinking. The party leadership may also be contemplating a meeting in the coming time to decide on the new leadership of BJP in the state. If not change of guard, but certainly the saffron camp will have to decide about the stability of cadre which they have failed to achieve under Sharma.”
Moreover, apart from Congress state president Govind Dotasra’s impactful role in invoking the Jat community in favour of the grand old party, what concretised the Jats voting against the BJP was the move to deny a ticket to sitting MP Rahul Kaswan which did not go down well. Kaswan, who lost his ticket due to differences with BJP leader Rajendra Rathore, not only won Congress the Churu seat but also dented BJP’s game in the Jat belt. Also, the ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s invisibility during BJP’s campaigning was a factor that proved to be vital in the loss of BJP in the state.