New Delhi: The Congress’s false interpretation of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘400 paar’ campaign slogan for the Lok Sabha polls to manipulate people, and the BJP’s inability to counter the claims, impacted the party’s performance in Rajasthan, BJP leader and Rajasthan minister Jhabar Singh Kharra has said. The party saw its tally tumble down to 14 seats versus a clean sweep in both 2014 and 2019.
Speaking to ThePrint, Kharra, the state’s urban development and housing minister, claimed that Congress managed to succeed in falsely linking the slogan with amendment of the Constitution and doing away with reservation.
“We were not able to dispel the confusion spread by Congress regarding the slogan, and it led to people believing that if we bagged 400 seats, we would amend the Constitution and make changes to the reservation policy,” he said.
Kharra said this attempt by the Congress to create an anti-BJP narrative started off only as a ‘common cold’, but was left untreated.
“Shuruaat mai zukham hua lekin dheere dheere wo bigad gaya aur vatavaran kharab ho gaya. Hum khandan nahi kar paaye aur zukham pneumonia ban gaya (what started as a common cold developed into pneumonia),” he remarked.
In December last year, after winning the Rajasthan assembly elections, BJP had opted for first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma, a Brahmin face, to lead the government as the chief minister.
For the last two terms, the party had been performing quite well in Rajasthan. Of the 25 seats in the state, it had won 24, and its ally one, in 2014 and 2019.
This time, however, it was served a setback as it won only 14 of the 25 seats, losing out the rest to the Congress (eight) and its allies.
The party’s underwhelming performance is also being attributed to the ‘below-par’ performance of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, rebellion by those who were denied tickets and dissension among leaders, apart from the caste arithmetic in ticket distribution.
Not just this, sources in the BJP said that the absence of the general secretary (organisation) of the party in the state, who acts as the link between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP, also affected its election management. Originally from RSS, Chandrashekhar, who was the general secretary (organisation), was shifted to Telangana in January after the assembly polls.
“We had to face defeat due to wrong ticket distribution. There are many reasons for the defeat and they should be discussed… the impact of the farmers’ movement, Agniveer, the issue of the wrestlers’ among others which had an impact,” Kharra told ThePrint.
The Rajasthan minister also slammed the Congress for indulging in caste-based politics to win seats. “Congress ne ek baar phir jaativaad ka zeher ghola,” he remarked.
“Many of our senior leaders were also caught up with their own campaigning, and we didn’t have a general secretary (organisation),” he further explained. He added that even the chief minister had to tour other places with a sizeable population of Rajasthani migrants, like Pune in Maharashtra.
Kharra said that the party was planning to carry out thorough reviews and plug the gaps, while working on a clear strategy for the future.
“The expectation was that we would have improved our vote share as we had already swept the state, but ‘400 paar’ naare se zukham lag gaya aur hum khandan nahi kar paaye (the 400-paar slogan caused a cold and BJP couldn’t fix it),” he said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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