Is BJP’s defeat in UP a learning lesson?

By-poll results for the assembly seats have come out, dragging with them heaps of lessons for our political parties to learn. BJP suffered a huge loss in UP and Rajasthan and marginally saved their face in West Bengal and in Gujarat. While in West Bengal BJP won its first ever assembly seat, in Rajasthan it won only one seat out of the four seats to Congress. It seems BJP lost ground in Uttar Pradesh as well where Samajwadi Party snatched 8 seats from BJP out of total 11 seats. In Gujarat, BJP won 6 seats but lost 3 seats to Congress.

Having covered and written on hate speeches, my prime focus was on Uttar Pradesh this time. Uttar Pradesh is the same state where controversial BJP MP Yogi Adityanath grabbed headlines for his hate speeches.

After performed spectacularly well in Loks Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party was certainly expecting similar results in these by-polls. It declared Yogi Adityanath as its star campaigner in Uttar Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath did not waste time to create controversies with his appalling talks in many rallies which ultimately provoked Election Commission to bar him from addressing anymore rallies. Off course, his intention was to polarize votes but has he been successful in doing this? Referring to the by-poll results, I definitely don’t think so.

There are several big issues in Uttar Pradesh and people have been going through difficult situations but instead of putting crucial things on agenda BJP’s star campaigner picked out on something called as“Love Jihad”.

Yogi Adityanath has certainly got an answer from the voters there. It is a learning lesson for the BJP top brass and for all these politicians indulging in hate speech. Taking people on a ride isn’t easy and fruitful for filling vote banks. People are seriously expecting development from the Modi government. And at such times, these speeches are anti-social.

After the by-poll results, Yogi Adityanath says that the BJP did not win in UP because he was banned from campaigning. This cannot be accepted as an excuse.

I think BJP leaders need to understand that crucial subjects deserve their focus and that indulging in such kind of politics is not going to be beneficial for the party in by polls. I just hope BJP learns a lesson from this result and focus on good governance. Though the result is not a referendum against Modi government but it is a clear message from the voters to BJP that don’t change the issue and don’t polarise the voters. It is high time for BJP to concede that they made a humongous mistake in campaign theme this time and concentrate on the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu Kashmir which is going be a litmus test for them.

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About Suyash Karangutkar

Suyash Karangutkar is a young, dedicated and an enthusiastic journalist who has a deep interest in National and International Affairs. He is an ardent political spectator who finds politics fascinating. At Spectralhues, he heads the Mumbai team and covers National Affairs & Politics. He also occasionally writes columns for Spectralhues. He can be followed on Twitter @columnistsuyash