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Political parties & BJP must learn lessons from Delhi polls

By Brij Bhardwaj. Dated: 2/13/2015 2:09:28 PM

The elections to the Delhi State Assembly has given results which hold many lessons for political parties in general and BJP in particular. The first obvious lesson is that no person irrespective of his stature, mass appeal can ensure a victory for any party. This lesson has been learnt by Congress party in the past and the current poll has administered same medicine to BJP which after the victory in poll to Lok Sabha and in states like Haryana and Maharashtra had become arrogant and had started taking voters for granted.
A belief grew that BJP President Amit Shah is a magician and sole custodian of a victory formula which can be used in all polls and will result in a thumping victory. This made them aggressive not only against parties which had opposed them in the past but also against those who had been aligned with them. In the first instance it dumped its old allies in Haryana and subsequently in Maharashtra.
Thanks to incumbency and in-fighting in Congress it worked in Haryana, but in Maharashtra it had to tie up with Shiv Sena after the poll to get a comfortable majority. In Punjab also their relations with Akali Dal have been under strain and the fear is that in the coming poll two parties will face serious challenge from Aam Aadmi Party and Congress. The allies of BJP have become bold and aggressive after the results of Delhi poll were out.
The second lesson for BJP and others is no poll can be won by wooing fence sitters who proved to be a boon in Lok Sabha poll. Nearly one third of the members elected on BJP ticket had deserted their parties and joined BJP on the eve of elections. This, however, did not work in poll to Delhi Assembly where all those who had joined BJP on eve of poll and contested were defeated including their nominee for the post of Chief Minister Kiran Bedi.
Yet another lesson was that use of massive resources in terms of money by holding large public rallies, newspaper campaigns and putting up hoardings does not work. It did not work in Jammu and Kashmir where it had set an ambitious target of getting full majority on its own, but drew blank in Kashmir and Ladakh. The result is that State has not been able to get a popular Government so far and job of reconciling conflicting promises made by PDP and BJP has polarised the State on regional basis.
Yet another lesson of the poll is a negative campaign in which you only attack your opponent does not work. In poll to Lok Sabha BJP talked of development, good governance, corruption free administration and development. While in Delhi campaign it only chose to attack AAM ADMI party in general and Kejriwal in particular. The attacks on Kejriwal like calling him a Naxalite did not carry conviction. The biggest mistake was when they chose to target a party for using black money in poll when it was the only party which had published names of all donors on their websight.
Against other political parties who received huge sums as cash donations where no donor could be identified. This was a wrong strategy as everyone could see who was using a lot of money in the campaign and who was being backed by major industrial houses, It is ironic that BJP made the same mistake in Delhi poll which had been made by the Congress party in poll to Lok Sabha when they chose to attack Narendra Modi instead of taking him on issues. The attempt to build a personality cult around Modi, arrogance in dealing with allies, selecting State leaders by party High Command are all mistakes Congress made in the past and BJP is just repeating them.
The biggest strength of BJP has been strong State leadership. This gave them results in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. It looks strange that BJP which had boasted of collective leadership in the past and democratic structure is now building its entire strategy round the personality of a Prime Minister. No leader, however tall or charismatic, can run a vast country like India which has such a diversity of regions, culture and religion.
It would be nice if the Prime Minister were to heed the advice of U.S President Obama that India can grow and prosper only if it retains its secular character. The recent campaigns by die hard groups by suggesting that India was a "Hindu Rashtra, Ghar Wapisi and Love Jihad", they have alienated minorities as well as many who wanted BJP to work for growth of all and fair treatment for people belonging to all faiths.
It would be nice if BJP learns the right lessons from its current defeat in Delhi. There is also a lesson for parties in opposition. Work on Governance and programs, as negative campaigns or use of money and muscle power cannot win polls for them.