K’taka still remains a challenge for BJP

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Apr 14, 2017, DHNS: The BJP’s prospects in the April 23 Delhi civic polls got a boost as it trounced the Aam Aadmi Party to clinch the Rajouri Garden seat and retained four others in bypolls in as many states.

But the setback in Karnataka has forced party leaders to sit back and analyse. The BJP was expecting a better performance to encourage its workers ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka.

Treating the Delhi bypoll as a referendum on the AAP government, the BJP sought resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

BJP vice-president and in-charge of Delhi, Shyam Jaju, said the outcome is a warning signal for the AAP ahead of the corporation elections and the people will teach them a lesson on April 23 as they did in the bypoll.

“People are sad with the AAP’s performance in Delhi. Kejriwal only does politics of lies and people cannot accept it,” said Jaju.

In West Bengal, where the BJP saw a big leap in its vote share, party leaders said the results indicate that the saffron outfit was emerging as an alternative to the Trinamool Congress government, and that efforts put by its cadres and the RSS as part of its “Look East” strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha election was paying off.

Reacting to the Congress’s win in Karnataka, a BJP leader from the state said that ruling parties always have the advantage in bypolls.

But party sources here acknowledged that for the BJP to outperform the Congress in the Assembly polls, its state leaders will have to bury their differences with former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and contest unitedly, which doesn’t seem to have happened despite previous efforts by BJP president Amit Shah.