The BJP has suffered major reverses in the Cantonment Board elections in two major cities — Varanasi and Lucknow — while in other places also the party has failed to make any mark. The drubbing in Varanasi, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, and Lucknow, which has Home Minister Rajnath Singh as its MP, are the two major worrying losses for the party that is gearing up for Assembly polls slated for 2017.
All the seven BJP-supported candidates in Varanasi and all its eight nominees in Lucknow lost to independent candidates. However, in Mathura Cantonment, the party won two of the seven wards with the remaining five going to independents, while in Bareilly the BJP bagged three out of seven seats.
In Agra too, the BJP did badly winning just one ward while Independents won the remaining seven seats. Only in Kanpur, represented by the former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi in the Lok Sabha, was the BJP able to win five out of eight wards. Agra and Bareilly are being represented by Union Ministers, R.S. Katheria and Santosh Gangwar, respectively.
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The poor showing is being seen as a major setback for the party which has undertaken a major membership drive in the State and claiming to have already enrolled over 85-lakh new members. Moreover, the party machinery played an active role in the polls and therefore the BJP not being able to perform well in cities being represented by high-profile leaders has come as a major jolt for its leaders.
However, BJP U.P. president Laxmikant Bajpai claimed the party has done better in boards other than Lucknow and Varanasi.