Ticket distribution, price rise key reasons for BJP defeats in Himachal & R'sthan: Central leaders

New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) A day after the party's poor performance in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, BJP leaders in Delhi feel that candidate selection and price rise played an important role in the by-polls. Some also feel infighting in local units also worked against the BJP candidates.

In the Himachal Pradesh bypolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party lost all the three assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha seat to rival Congress. In Rajasthan, the saffron party lost both the assembly constituencies to the Congress, the party in power in the state.

A senior functionary said that denying tickets to the son of Gautam Lal Meena from Dhariyawad in Rajasthan and Chetan Bragta son of former minister of Himachal Pradesh Narendra Bragta is one of the reasons for losing one assembly seat each in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

"The party denied tickets to the sons of Meena and Bragta saying it would promote nepotism. Chetan Bragta came second in Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly constituency and our candidate came third. BJP candidate Neelam Seraik got just 2644 votes and forfeited her deposit with a vote share of 4.67 per cent in Jubbal-Kotkhai. If we had given a ticket to Chetan, the result could have been different. Similarly, Meena's son was also denied a ticket and we lost the seat to the Congress," he said.

Talking about the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, a party functionary hinted that the party underestimated Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, the wife of late chief minister Virbhadra Singh, from Mandi. Another party leader pointed out that in Rajasthan the state unit is witnessing huge in-fighting between the supporters of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and state president Satish Poonia.

"Along with the party decision to not promote nepotism, Gautam Lal Meena's son Kanhaiya Meena was denied the ticket as his father was a well-known supporter of Raje which also worked against the party in the bypolls. Both the camps failed to put up a united front while the Congress despite also witnessing infighting put up a united front for the bypolls. The results show the united front shown by the Congress yielded favourable results," he said.

A senior functionary claimed that price rise also worked against the party. "Whether we realise it or not price rise is an issue and the Congress party effectively convinced voters that the BJP-led Union government is responsible for it. Prices of everything have increased and this is hurting the common man and they showed their anger by voting against our candidate," he said.

After the results, BJP Himachal Pradesh president Suresh Kumar Kashyap had told IANS that there were several reasons for their defeat and price rise was one of them.

"The Congress had made price rise and rising fuel prices an issue and I think that it may have worked in their favour. The BJP, however, will hold a detailed review of the results to find out the reasons for the defeat and correct the shortcomings while preparing for the next assembly polls," Kashyap had said.