'Why Hindu Voters Get Divided Along Caste Lines': BJP Is Considering These Factors For Its Losses In Uttar Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has assigned senior leaders to review the losses in Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

These leaders have been allotted certain parliamentary constituencies and they will have to visit every assembly segment of that constituency and submit their report to the state leadership by 25 June.

BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary will go to Ayodhya (Faizabad constituency) and Amethi, where BJP lost prestige battles despite the Ram Mandir inauguration and Smriti Irani being Union minister respectively.

UP BJP's general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh will have to review Rae Bareli, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won despite the party's allegations of him being a bhagoda (one who fled) from Amethi.

Similarly, UP BJP's general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla will review Saharanpur and vice-president Dharmendra Singh will review Muzaffarnagar, where another former Union minister Sanjeev Balyan lost.

These leaders will also carry a set of questions about possible reasons for losses and seek their answers. The questions include the activeness of party workers on the ground and the connectedness of the candidates with the public.

Among strategic reasons, the questions consider whether any government decisions (Centre or state or both) played a role in the loss and why voters from a community drifted away from the party.

"What were the strategy failures? Why did Hindu voters get divided along caste lines? What was the movement of party leaders among people of their castes and communities?" are some other questions.

The questions also consider logistics as how effectively publicity materials were used, what resources were available, booth management and how the organisation and candidates coordinated among themselves.

"What effect, if any, did visits by leaders have on various communities? What was the decline in vote share in assembly segments and how did the Opposition gain advantage?" are some other questions.

The review also aims to study where the Opposition fared like which opposition narratives harmed the BJP and the movement of Opposition candidates on the ground and what resources they used in their campaign.

The review will also consider how the issues of the Constitution and reservation impacted the campaign. The state leadership will then compile these reports and send to the central leadership.

The feedback will be collected from mandal unit leaders, district office-bearers, the party’s elected public representatives, and the candidates.

The BJP is considering this review essential because UP will have assembly elections in less than three years. It believes that paper leaks in recruitment exams and unemployment might have harmed the party.

"The SP is upbeat after the Lok Sabha election. They benefitted from the flaws in our strategy and so we have to prepare in advance for the 2027 polls and bring back the voters who drifted from the BJP," a BJP leader said.

Another BJP leader highlighted that "no structured meeting has taken place with the state government and the RSS regarding the UP results" and only a general discussion happened in Delhi last week.

He added, "Once the reports of review meetings are collected from the field, the BJP will be prepared for meetings with the state government, the leaders at the central headquarters, and the RSS."