The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 gave a massive setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which was expecting to score even bigger this time than what it did in 2019. The party’s poor show in Uttar Pradesh, which harbours the largest share of parliamentary seats in the country, 80, has been the talk of the town since June 4. While the party was expecting to replicate or outperform its 2019 outing in the state, it suffered a major hiccup in its road to getting the majority on its own for the third time in a row in 2024, as the BJP only managed to win 33 seats in the state. Samajwadi Party outplayed the BJP and won 37 seats while Congress got 6 seats. The BJP lost some crucial seats including Faizabad, Amethi, Rae Bareli among others.
According to sources, a report has been sent to the Uttar Pradesh BJP headquarters in Lucknow, which lists out the reasons behind the party’s drubbing in the state.
Here are the reasons cited behind the BJP’s poor show in the report, according to sources:
- There was public dissatisfaction with MPs who had won more than two terms, and some MPs did not behave appropriately.
- The state government had recommended denying tickets to nearly three dozen sitting MPs, which was ignored. If the candidates had been changed, the results might have been better.
- The BJP could not respond effectively to the Opposition's claims about changing the Constitution and ending reservations, and the Opposition succeeded in convincing the public.
- The coordination between party officials and MPs was not good, which resulted in a significant reduction in the distribution of voter slips to households across the state.
- In some districts, there was a lack of coordination between MLAs and their own candidates, and MLAs did not support them properly, resulting in defeat.
- The Congress' promise of a monthly guarantee of Rs 8,500 attracted the beneficiary class who had benefited from various welfare schemes of the government, and the lack of direct communication with beneficiaries also contributed to the defeat.
- In many districts, the unpopularity of the MP candidates was so overwhelming that BJP workers did not leave their homes to campaign.
- The neglect of party workers was also a major issue. Disappointed and indifferent workers voted for the party but did not mobilise others to vote.
- Each seat had its own factors, such as the paper leak and schemes like Agniveer, where the Opposition succeeded in misleading people, and the BJP failed to counter effectively.
