Chandigarh MC poll: BJP loses plot to AAP’s dream debut

In ascendancy for the last three municipal corporation (MC) elections and winning two successive Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got a major reversal of fortune losing its thumping majority in the Chandigarh MC poll.

Reduced to the second position after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP lost 40% of seats from the last election.

In the results declared on Monday, its tally stands at 12 in a house of 35. It had won 20 seats in the 2016 elections when the total seats were 26. While in 2011, it secured 10 seats, and in the previous 2006 civic polls, it won on six seats.

A strong anti-incumbency factor played a key role in the saffron party’s defeat. In 14 wards where existing councillors or their relatives were given the ticket by the party, only four won, this included, one outgoing – Ravi Kant Sharma and two former mayors – Rajesh Kalia and Davesh Moudgil.

In victories too, the winning margin was low. For instance, senior deputy mayor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu won by only 11 votes in ward number 2 and Sarabjit Kaur won in ward number 6 by 502 votes.

The garbage mess

With the onset of campaigning, the party was on the defensive as opposition parties cornered it on the city’s poor show in the Swachh Survekshan 2021. The City Beautiful fell sharply in the sanitation rankings. The party’s failure to upgrade the solid waste management plant, Sector 25, and slow progress of legacy mining work at the Dadumajra dumping site was aggressively used by both AAP and the Congress against it.

The party could seldom defend its record on the issue, blaming the Congress also didn’t cut much ice with the general public. The party’s choice of candidates in these locations, like the “unpopular” former mayor Rajesh Kalia from Dadumajra, also didn’t go well with an already angry populace. It lost all seats located around the Dadumajra dumping site. AAP won in ward numbers 25 and 26; and the Congress in ward numbers 27 and 28, which are located near the dumping site.

Freebies trick

At a time when the BJP increased the water tariff, sewage cess and garbage collection charges, the AAP’s promise to make all these free attracted a sizable vote share towards it. This was particularly the case in colonies, where the BJP could win only three of the 12 seats dominated by the colony votes.

The party roping in a number of star campaigners from Purvanchal like MP Manoj Tiwari also didn’t succeed in the face of the AAP’s freebies in these locations. Colonies’ voters overwhelmingly backed the AAP.

Split wide open

The senior party leadership though made a concerted effort in keeping the different disjointed party factions together but it came a little too late.

For the last five years, the party’s internal disputes were being put up for public display repeatedly tarnishing the image of the cadre-based party. From fights over the choice of mayoral candidates to the distribution of tickets for elections, the party could not manage its factionalism, which in the end sprouted as more than 12 rebel candidates.

Though it could manage to withdraw the candidature of three rebels, the other nine proved to be major vote splitters against the party. For instance, rebel candidate Kripanand Thakur, though himself lost to Congress candidate, but pushed the BJP official candidate Devi Kumar to the third place, with combined votes of both more than winning candidate.

Party leadership under scanner

With the party’s poor show, questions are being raised over the leadership of state president Arun Sood and senior party leader Sanjay Tandon, both played a key role in the management of the party’s campaign.

“Local leadership wasn’t able to manage properly the resources available at hand. Even the coordination between different departments was not proper. The election committee didn’t include balanced party voices. Not much effort was put into the formation of the manifesto when the Congress and AAP were making attractive promises. Star campaigners were not even properly briefed about city-specific issues,” said a senior BJP leader requesting anonymity.

Sood said, “We managed the campaign well. But with even the Delhi government putting in funds in its city unit’s campaign publicising the unworkable freebies, we didn’t perform on expected lines.”

Former MP Satya Pal Jain said, “The party’s performance is shocking and disgusting. It is time for the party to introspect and find what are the reasons behind it.”