The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership’s decision to field leaders with a Hindu hardliner image in key constituencies, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s reluctance to reach out to the Christian community, and its alleged bid to hold the campaign machinery under a tight leash are being cited as some of the prime reasons for the debacle the National Democratic Alliance suffered in the Lok Sabha election in the State.
Party sources told The Hindu that hopes to mobilise Hindu votes by focussing the campaign on the Sabarimala issue alone had gone awry and afforded ammunition to the rival fronts to dub the BJP communal.
This stance also alienated different denominations of the Christian community, mainly the Orthodox Church which wielded a lot of clout in Pathanamthitta and elsewhere. Miffed at the initial attempts to reach out to the Church, the Sangh Parivar even burnt the bridges, thus closing the door to further negotiations, sources said.
The decision to experiment with leaders with a hardliner image in segments where the party had high expectations allowed the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front to train their guns on the BJP.
Plot lost at grassroots
The RSS attempt to micro-manage the campaign and resources by deploying its cadre had forced to hibernation hardcore BJP workers who could gauge the trends at the grassroots. This had slackened the campaign machinery, sources said.
Flaws in assigning senior BJP leaders for managing the campaign have drawn flak at a preliminary post-poll review. For instance, leaders familiar with the trends and preferences of the voters in Thiruvananthapuram were compelled to move to other districts. The pattern was replicated elsewhere too. The resource management mode has come in for criticism.
A reported attempt to place the blame for the reversal squarely on the BJP State leadership is being pointed out as a conscious effort of the Sangh Parivar to cloak its slips in candidate selection and campaign management. Critics of the Sangh Parivar are citing the face-losing defeat Kummanam Rajasekharan and K. Surendran suffered in the capital and Pathanamthitta as a case in point.
The poll reversals have widened the chasm between the BJP and the RSS leadership, but such squabbles would invite the attention of the national leadership only after the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and effecting organisational changes, if any, sources said.
