Why BJPs Star Campaigner Adityanath Failed Miserably in Chhattisgarh

On November 9, Ajay Singh Bisht, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, who goes by his monk name Yogi Adityanath, arrived in style, wearing semi-aviator glasses, at the residence of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and received a very warm welcome by the host.

The former CM along with his family gave a God-like welcome to Adityanath by performing aarti and later touching his feet to seek blessings for victory in the Assembly elections. But this time, Yogi’s blessings did not work for Singh, who lost the elections and won only 18 out of 90 seats in the State. Singh has served the state for three terms.

The first speech delivered by the UP Chief Minister in Raipur on November 10 did not go well. He spoke only on the issue of constructing the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, followed by a verbal attack on Congress and Naxalism.

Adityanath, who was the poster boy of the saffron party, addressed 23 public meetings in the tribal state, but failed in garner sufficient votes for his party, and this at a time when law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh had gone for a toss. It is to be noted that the monk-turned-politician addressed the maximum numbers of rallies, followed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah who addressed eight rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four public gatherings.

A BJP insider told Newsclick that Adityanath had been the choice of none other than Shah and Modi.

“After tasting success in North Eastern state and few other states where BJP registered its win early in 2018, Yogi Adityanath became a first choice of the party. He is even liked by the PM and party president on this front,” said the close source.

Raj Silvano, a veteran political observer, believes Adityanath gained a lot of popularity due to some of the decisions that he took after becoming the UP Chief Minister, and people especially some Hindu sects, liked him a lot. But then, things started taking a U- turn.

“The charm of Adityanath has faded and the result can be seen in the mandate in the three states (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh). Also, BJP failed to read the pattern of voting. Take, for instance, Tripura, where Adityanath got a very good response because of the maximum number of Nath (a Hindu sect) voters and not because of his pro-Hindutva image, But, this was not the case in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he says.

Silvano feels that instead of speaking up on Hindutva, if Yogi had delivered his speeches on issues of tribal problems, farming and other issues, it could have helped his party.

A study of speeches by this reporter shows that the most ‘popular’ BJP leader failed to touch the pulse of voters as his speeches were confined to attacking Congress, Naxalism and spouting Hindutva. He hardly spoke about development.

According to Manish Soni, a senior freelance journalist, being a tribal state, Chhattisgarh never had communal issues. So, Yogi should have avoided his regular Hindutva speeches if he really wanted to be an asset for the party in this state, he adds.

“A small research could have done wonders for BJP in Chhattisgarh. There was very strong anti-incumbency in the state, but the ground reality is that Congress came to power because people did not have any other good option. They (BJP) failed in speaking on farmers’ issues in the state, which was one of the major poll planks of Congress,” Soni says.

Meanwhile, senior party leaders have started doing the initial post-mortem to ascertain the reasons for defeat. A few of them have reached a conclusion that wrong ticket distribution could have been a reason, while some others feel that it was the ‘curse’ of Lord Hanuman, who was termed a “Dalit” by Adityanath.

A senior party leader from central Chhattisgarh says that there is no one reason for BJP’s defeat in the state.

“The failure to deliver the promised MSP (minimum support price) to farmers in the state, the issue of tribal and forest rights, the inaccessibility of ministers and officers, corruption charges against the Raman Singh government and faulty ticket distribution, knowing that there was very strong anti-incumbency is the state, has cost the party. These are just some of the causes that I can count,” the leader says, blaming the party’s complacency for the defeat.

“I will not blame any single leader for this loss. But giving priority to a parachute campaigner and neglecting the party cadre and local leaders will always take a toll on any party, be it BJP or Congress or any other party,” he concludes.