NEW DELHI: The resonance of the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh has decreased significantly since the 2022 Assembly elections, say Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, workers and political observers. They say that a course correction needs to be made by the state leadership—including tackling the corruption up to the lowest level of administration, reluctance of the CM to monitor development and administrative work while leaving the same to officers. Party insiders say what is needed is directing the ministers and elected party leaders to be receptive to the distress and need of the voters. Or else, the combination of Samajwadi Party-Congress may prevail over the BJP in state elections that are roughly two and a half years away.
While party leaders who spoke to The Sunday Guardian post the results of the general elections—BJP secured only 33 seats in UP—said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath continued to remain the most popular BJP leader in the state, yet they agreed that the results of 2027 cannot be taken for granted now.
In the 2017 elections, the BJP had got an unprecedented 312 seats of the total 403 Assembly seats. However, in the next Assembly elections held in February 2022, the Yogi-led government was reduced to 255 seats, thus suffering a loss of 57 seats. This was termed as an aberration by the party leaders rather than a testament of the anger against the BJP government in the state.
However, the party’s poor performance in UP in the general elections has confirmed that ground was slipping from under the BJP’s feet rapidly in UP.
Apart from losing 30 seats from the state, the BJP’s vote share fell by a significant percentage. In the 2019 general elections, the party had got 49.98% of the total votes polled, which was reduced to 41.37% this time.
“The performance in the 2024 elections is a wake-up call for the BJP in UP. If it was not for the popularity of Narendra Modi, we would not have crossed even 15 seats, such has been the performance of our elected leaders who are happier doing headline grabbing acts like running bulldozers across the state and resorting to loud rhetoric instead of working on the ground. The ‘all-is-well’ noise on social media is not a true reflection of the ground situation. Over-confidence has become a part of the system in the last few years. One of the top ministers from UP lost because of this arrogance,” a mid-level party functionary who has been with the party for more than two decades said.
Another party leader said that the control over law and order, which has been the calling card of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, too should not loosen. While the CM has been able to control organized mafia and gangsters to a large extent, police have been found wanting when it comes to issues of road rage, traffic violations, rowdyism, show of strength by local politically exposed persons, events that are experienced by the common voters.
“The law and order situation is definitely not as robust as what it was in the first term of the BJP. This is something that needs to be brought to the notice of the CM. During the campaign, we got feedback related to lack of police presence from a large number of voters. The fear of police among the criminals and rowdy elements was and still is the major attraction of the BJP government. If that gets diluted, it is going to hurt us significantly in the coming months,” said the leader, who has been a member of the Upper House in the past.
“The problem is that the CM is not getting feedback about these things as officers around him are feeding him filtered news. In some cases, media too has been compromised by one way or the other by some officials because of which ‘negative’ news does not get published or shown, another party leader based in Noida told The Sunday Guardian.