The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the Assembly bye-election at Anta in Rajasthan has fomented dissent with questions being raised over the party’s campaigning strategy. Party insiders feel that the senior leaders of the Hadoti region were sidelined and the ground-level realities were ignored.
The Opposition Congress wrested the seat from the BJP in the bypoll result announced on November 14, when former Minister Pramod Jain defeated Morpal Suman with a margin of 15,612 votes. As the Congress became confident after its victory, the deliberations within the BJP are centred on factionalism, internal squabbles and lack of coordination among the leaders.
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Seven-time BJP MLA and a veteran leader of the Hadoti region in south-eastern Rajasthan, Pratap Singh Singhvi, has blamed former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and the party leadership for the loss. Mr. Singhvi said the BJP’s campaigning “lacked cohesive and collective efforts” and the top leadership ignored the party workers’ contribution.
“First-time MLAs were given prominence in the events like road shows of Ms. Raje and [Chief Minister] Bhajan Lal Sharma, but I was neither invited nor assigned any responsibility,” Mr. Singhvi told journalists in Jaipur. The Chhabra MLA regretted that the senior leaders were ignored and the local issues affecting the electorate were not addressed in an effective manner.
