New Delhi:
As the ruling BJP confronted an unexpected setback in Haryana, falling short of a majority just months after its national election victory, party leaders tried to come up with reasons. A senior leader suggested it was a communication gap between the people and the party.
The BJP was leading in 39 of Haryana’s 90 seats – far less than its own target of 75 – while the Congress was ahead in 32 seats as votes were counted for elections held on Monday in Haryana and Maharashtra.
With Haryana heading for a hung verdict, the Congress reached out to Dushyant Chautala of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) for help to try and form government.
“Although we have done good work in Haryana in the last five years, it seems there has been some communication gap between voters and the party,” said BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya told reporters.
“It seems that we couldn’t take our message to the voters,” said Mr Vijayvargiya.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed several rallies in Haryana, and among his campaign themes were the decision to scrap special status to Jammu and Kashmir and his government’s tough stand on terror from Pakistan.
Many had believed that the ruling party would continue its winning streak by focusing on national decisions when its performance on local issues did not look very promising for the party.
“We will try to introspect why we fell short of the target we had set for ourselves,” BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told NDTV.
The BJP took power for the first time on its own in Haryana in the 2014 state elections.
Manohar Lal Khattar, a veteran groomed by the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), became Chief Minister.
Mr Khattar, known for his controversial – often misogynistic statements – has been summoned by his top leadership to Delhi for a post-mortem.
Seven of the BJP’s 11 ministers in Haryana were trailing.
One of them, OP Dhankar, said the party could not effectively communicate its good work done in the past five years.
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