MP: Central BJP Leadership Takes Defeat Of Party In Datia By-Elections Seriously

Bhopal: The Central BJP leadership has taken note of the defeat of the party in the just-concluded by-elections to the Datia Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh and initiated efforts to review its poll strategy to ‘prevent recurrence of such a situation’ in the 2028 state polls in MP.

BJP national general secretary (organization) B L Santoshi is tipped to review the loss of the party in the Datia by-elections amid ongoing experiment by the party to promote next generation leaders in the states-ruled by the saffron outfit, a senior BJP functionary told this newspaper on Thursday.

“The Datia by-election was a test case for the BJP on its strategy to launch fresh faces by replacing some of the old guards in the 2028 Assembly polls. The defeat has brought to the fore the shortcomings of the party's poll strategy. The loopholes will be plugged after the review”, the BJP leader has disclosed.

Sources said that the Datia by-poll loss was least expected by the party leadership which had gone to the elections with a ‘perfect election strategy’, expecting a victory by a margin of no less than 7,000 votes, despite the adverse situation, created by the supporters of senior BJP leader and former home minister Narottam Mishra, who was left sulking following the denial of his renomination for the by-election by the party.

The BJP had chosen a new face, Ashutosh Tiwari, over him to contest the by-polls, which had particularly left Mr. Mishra’s supporters simmering, sources added.

“Ashutosh has no capability to deny me a party ticket. It is some other person in the higher position who did it”, was the constant refrain of Mr. Mishra during the campaign for the party in the by-election.

He had sought to make it an emotive issue by taking to theatrics to portray him as a ‘victim of injustice’ by the party to connect with the voters and establish that he is still a force to reckon with in Datia.

“It was said that I was denied a ticket due to the negative feedback on me in the constituency, gathered by the BJP. I cannot believe it”, he had said.

The BJP leadership had left no stones unturned to wrest the seat from Congress by launching a high-voltage campaign against a low-profile electioneering by the Congress, but all its efforts were still found wanting.

“The entire party structure, from top to bottom, had been built by Mr. Mishra over the years with his loyalists. The party leadership tried hard to motivate them to work for the victory of our candidate’, the BJP leader said.

The first thing the state BJP leadership did after the defeat was the dissolution of the entire party structure in the constituency.

“The defeat margin in Datia has been reduced by around 1,700 votes over that of the 2023 Assembly polls in the state. We could do it despite dropping an old guard and fielding a fresh face. The Datia by-election is a lesson learnt for us. We will review our poll strategy and remove our shortcomings encountered in Datia when we field new faces in the 2028 Assembly polls”, sources close to state party leadership said.