Farmers Movement Archive

BJP meeting to review bypoll results

The BJP will be getting into a huddle on Sunday for the long-delayed meetings of the party’s national executive, and top on the agenda will be the Assembly elections next year as well as a review of the just-concluded byelections which yielded mixed results for the party. The meeting will last from morning to mid-afternoon, and will be kicked off by BJP president J.P. Nadda’s address to the executive, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering the concluding address. As COVID-19 protocols are in place, only national executive members who live in Delhi, national office-bearers of the party and Union Ministers who are members of the national executive will be asked to be present in person, while those outside Delhi have been asked to join virtually. A day after the mixed results of the byelections to 29 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats across 11 States, BJP leaders admitted that in the case of Himachal Pradesh at least, where the party lost all the seats it was contesting, a review into the causes of defeat was important and was going to take place soon. Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, himself an MP from Himachal Pradesh, speaking to news agency ANI said in Dharamshala that, “the Himachal Pradesh will call a timely meeting, discuss people’s mandate and look for reasons behind it. Learning from it, steps will be taken to make necessary improvements so that the lotus [the BJP’s electoral symbol] blooms again in 2022 [when Himachal Pradesh goes for Assembly polls].” When pressed for the reasons for the party’s loss in the State, Mr. Thakur refused to pinpoint any one reason, while Chief Minister Jairam Thakur had pointed to high prices being a contributory factor. Local factors “It’s too early to say anything. Results came in different States of the country. The BJP won all five seats in Assam, we won in Madhya Pradesh, won one out of two seats in Karnataka. Every State has its own local issues for bypolls, every party brainstorms over it, we will do it too,” he said. A political resolution, likely covering issues such as the farmers protests over the three controversial farm Bills, the vaccination programme of the Government and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir will be debated and passed during the national executive meeting as well.

The Hindu

2021-11-04

NEW DELHI