BJP’s ‘historic’ win in M.P. civic polls gives Cong. hope

There are calls for introspection within BJP on why so many mayoral seats were lost

The BJP may have dubbed the Madhya Pradesh civic body election results “historic”, but ironically it went into the elections with all 16 incumbent mayors and lost nearly half of them, including in its traditional strongholds like Gwalior, Jabalpur and Rewa.

As these elections are being viewed as the semi-finals to the Assembly election scheduled 14 months from now, the scoreline has given the Congress much hope. And despite the official BJP line of “historic victory”, there have been calls for introspection within the party on why so many mayoral seats were lost.

Reading the subtext of the loss is just as important as the result itself, say its leaders. They point to how the BJP lost both the mayoral posts in the Gwalior-Chambal belt (Gwalior and Morena) that allowed the Congress to take a dig at its former member Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched loyalties two years ago. In Katni -- part of the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat that BJP State president V.D. Sharma represents – the party lost to its own rebel Priti Sanjeev Suri, who contested as an Independent. It thus lost two of three seats (Singrauli to Aam Aadmi Party and Rewa to the Congress) in the Vindhya region, where it did well in the last Assembly election.

‘Loss alarming’

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has been more vocal than others about the loss. “I cannot deny that the loss of Gwalior is alarming,” he told a local TV channel on Thursday. Mr. Vijayvargiya said the entry of a group [Mr. Scindia and his supporters] was supposed to strengthen the party. “If we have lost there, we will have to think about the reasons,” he said.

There were reported differences between Mr. Scindia and Union Minister and Morena MP Narendra Singh Tomar that caused a delay in candidate announcement. If unresolved, these differences can pose a bigger selection headache in the next year’s Assembly poll, said a party leader.

After the final results were announced on Wednesday, there was an attempt to contextualise the mayoral post losses by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and State president Mr. Sharma.