<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BJP bludgeoned, black and blue </b>
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BJP bludgeoned, black and blueNew Delhi, May 11: More than the fact that it won merely nine seats in all the five states, what badly scarred the BJP today was the combined impact of Sonia Gandhiâs staggering victory and the Leftâs resounding triumph.
Despite the election results being on expected lines, no one in the party was ready for the psychological blow that Sonia dealt them not just in Rae Bareli but in Assam and Pondicherry as well.
Adding to the humiliation was the âface of Hindutvaâ, Vinay Katiyar, losing his deposit in Rae Bareli.
Compounding the partyâs misery was the stark failure of its two leading lights â Arun Jaitley and the late Pramod Mahajan, in charge of elections in Bengal and Assam, respectively â to conjure up any imaginative strategy in the two states.
The party failed to open an account in Bengal and increased its tally by just one seat in Assam despite the tall claims made by Mahajan in the run-up to the polls.
Senior leaders attribute their failure to perform in Bengal to three main factors:
Their voters were âseducedâ by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjeeâs reforms
The benefit of a âpersonality clashâ between Mamata Banerjee and Bhattacharjee went to the veteran Marxist
Mamata did not allow them to contest any seat where they had hopes of winning.
The fact, however, is that the BJP came up with zilch even in seats that Mamata allowed them to contest. Till yesterday, senior party leaders were hopeful of clinching at least three to four seats â mainly Balurghat, Jagaddal, Habibpur and Shyampukur.
âThe Marwaris or the bhadralok who never vote the CPM were talking a different language this time round while the traditional Left supporter, the rural poor especially, was feeling a little alienated,â said a senior BJP leader.
In the end, the âalienationâ of the rural poor, something that the BJP was hoping would help them make some headway in the Marxist bastion, came to naught.
The facts were stark enough for the BJP even before Soniaâs landslide victory added to their misery. Their brightest prospects were in Assam where the BJP contested 126 seats and won nine.
The situation in the rest of the states was one disaster after another:
<b>None out of 34 seats it contested in Bengal
None of 234 in Tamil Nadu where it had won four seats in the last polls
None of 29 contested in Pondicherry
None of 139 contested in Kerala.</b>
In Rae Bareli, Katiyar was relegated to the third position by polling 19,657 votes, not enough to save his security deposit. A candidate has to get at least one-sixth of the total polled votes to secure his deposit.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BJP bludgeoned, black and blueNew Delhi, May 11: More than the fact that it won merely nine seats in all the five states, what badly scarred the BJP today was the combined impact of Sonia Gandhiâs staggering victory and the Leftâs resounding triumph.
Despite the election results being on expected lines, no one in the party was ready for the psychological blow that Sonia dealt them not just in Rae Bareli but in Assam and Pondicherry as well.
Adding to the humiliation was the âface of Hindutvaâ, Vinay Katiyar, losing his deposit in Rae Bareli.
Compounding the partyâs misery was the stark failure of its two leading lights â Arun Jaitley and the late Pramod Mahajan, in charge of elections in Bengal and Assam, respectively â to conjure up any imaginative strategy in the two states.
The party failed to open an account in Bengal and increased its tally by just one seat in Assam despite the tall claims made by Mahajan in the run-up to the polls.
Senior leaders attribute their failure to perform in Bengal to three main factors:
Their voters were âseducedâ by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjeeâs reforms
The benefit of a âpersonality clashâ between Mamata Banerjee and Bhattacharjee went to the veteran Marxist
Mamata did not allow them to contest any seat where they had hopes of winning.
The fact, however, is that the BJP came up with zilch even in seats that Mamata allowed them to contest. Till yesterday, senior party leaders were hopeful of clinching at least three to four seats â mainly Balurghat, Jagaddal, Habibpur and Shyampukur.
âThe Marwaris or the bhadralok who never vote the CPM were talking a different language this time round while the traditional Left supporter, the rural poor especially, was feeling a little alienated,â said a senior BJP leader.
In the end, the âalienationâ of the rural poor, something that the BJP was hoping would help them make some headway in the Marxist bastion, came to naught.
The facts were stark enough for the BJP even before Soniaâs landslide victory added to their misery. Their brightest prospects were in Assam where the BJP contested 126 seats and won nine.
The situation in the rest of the states was one disaster after another:
<b>None out of 34 seats it contested in Bengal
None of 234 in Tamil Nadu where it had won four seats in the last polls
None of 29 contested in Pondicherry
None of 139 contested in Kerala.</b>
In Rae Bareli, Katiyar was relegated to the third position by polling 19,657 votes, not enough to save his security deposit. A candidate has to get at least one-sixth of the total polled votes to secure his deposit.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->