BJP Leaders Blame Intra-Party Feud For Dismal Show In Assembly Polls

Bhubaneswar: State BJP leaders met here on Sunday to review the poll outcome, amid claims that internal feuds were to blame for the mixed show.

Former BJP MLA Radharani Panda and some party leaders blamed internal bickering and squabbles for the party’s dismal show in the Assembly elections. Panda, who lost the polls by 11,000 votes, told reporters that “intra-party feud” spoiled the BJP’s winning prospects in many seats, including her own.

While the saffron party won eight seats in the Lok Sabha polls, its tally in the Assembly elections remained 23, contrary to the party’s top leadership’s clarion call to wrest as many as 120 seats.

“There was clear anti-incumbency in several parts of the state, but we failed to capitalise on it. We need to analyse what went wrong,” former MLA Pradip Purohit said.

Before the high-level meeting of district presidents and office bearers, the party’s core committee also analysed the results.

The meeting,attended by Odisha-in-charge Arun Singh, discussed especially those seats where the BJP failed to win despite holding a clear edge over rival parties in the run-up to the elections. In several seats, the winning margin was less than 5,000 votes, while in 81 seats, the party came second.

At the felicitation function on Saturday, Union Minister Pratap Sarangi had likened party workers indulging in anti-party activity to Mir Jafars and Mir Qasims. He had also cautioned such forces, telling them they would meet the fate of traitors.

Senior party leader Dharmendra Pradhan had asserted that party workers should carry on with their political struggle till they achieve the party’s goal of winning 120 seats in the Assembly.