Knives out in Chandigarh BJP camp, day after poll debacle
As per party insiders, seven leaders – most of them ticket aspirants themselves -- have been identified against whom action is to be sought. Tandon, a poll debutant and a former president of the saffron party’s city unit, had replaced two-time Member of Parliament Kirron Kher as the BJP candidate from the city after she opted out of the election. The party had also seen a dip in vote share – from 50.64% in the 2019 general elections to 47.7% now.
The aftershocks of defeat were evident in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Chandigarh unit on Wednesday as a section of leaders accused some prominent party faces of deliberately staying away from Sanjay Tandon’s campaign, leading to the debacle.
Tandon had lost to Congress’ Manish Tewari by a wafer-thin margin of 2,504 votes.
As per party insiders, seven leaders – most of them ticket aspirants themselves -- have been identified against whom action is to be sought. Tandon, a poll debutant and a former president of the saffron party’s city unit, had replaced two-time Member of Parliament Kirron Kher as the BJP candidate from the city after she opted out of the election. The party had also seen a dip in vote share – from 50.64% in the 2019 general elections to 47.7% now.
Chandigarh BJP’s vice-president Devinder Singh Babla said that some leaders had stayed away from Tandon’s campaign as they wanted him to lose. “These leaders even told their supporters to not support Tandon. Even the BJP president failed in his duty. Under his leadership, we have lost two elections –first the mayoral polls and now the Lok Sabha,” said Babla.
The missing faces
During the campaign it was often reported that former MP Satya Pal Jain, former city BJP chief Arun Sood, and former mayor Davesh Moudgil had not been actively engaged in the campaign.
Tandon, however, had publically maintained that Jain did not participate as he holds a Constitutional post as the Additional Solicitor General, while Sood had to withdraw from the campaign towards the end due to a family tragedy.
A few leaders even credited Tandon for putting up a brave fight amid the internal bickering.
BJP councillor Kanwarjit Singh Rana said, “Some of our own leaders ditched the party candidate during his campaign. These leaders must be immediately expelled from the party to send out a clear message to the cadre.”
There were some who also blamed Tandon for the poll outcome. “He ignored many local leaders, giving key responsibilities of the campaign to his family members and relatives who had no prior experience of handling elections. Many leaders, who had been working at the grassroots for years, felt sidelined,” said a BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity.
Even Kirron Kher, while reacting to the poll outcome on Tuesday, had said, “I was ignored by some individuals in the party. The debacle was due to factionalism in the party.”
Factionalism runs deep in the party
It is widely believed that Kher was given the ticket in 2014 as the
party high command felt that infighting among Tandon, Jain and Harmohan Dhawan (who later joined AAP) could damage BJP’s prospects in the city.
A former councilor and RSS worker, Satinder Singh, admitted that the party failed to mobilise the workers. Singh, who was the convener of the BJP’s colony cell. Colonies and villages have nearly half the votes of the constituency.
Despite several attempts, former party president Arun Sood, former MP Satya Pal Jain, former mayor Davesh Moudgil and former mayor Anup Gupta were not available for comments.
Party president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, however, said, “It was a close contest and we will introspect on when went wrong.”
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