On my way to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters on Tuesday, 11 February, I was anticipating to be greeted by a sea of charged party workers, as is the case at political gatherings and rallies. But, the day turned out to be unusually uneventful – well, at least for the BJP karyakartas.
Considering that the counting of votes had barely begun, the silence was particularly conspicuous – especially as the BJP had campaigned in Delhi with great show and pomp, deploying its top-rung leaders to conduct rallies and set the agenda.
Compared to this star-studded campaign, there were no prominent faces, no prominent spokespersons, no prominent leaders with a mass appeal and ofcourse, no cakes on the final counting day.
Though I have to give it to the BJP, it still had food for the media, something my colleague at the headquarters of AAP, which swept the elections, said he was not offered till much later.
And speaking of cake, it reminds me how on 23 May at the BJP's national headquarters, food items came out one after the other. I was present the day BJP stunned everyone by winning over 300 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. Apart from cakes and laddoos, there was dhol and dancing, and with songs playing all afternoon, the mood was carnivalesque.
That day, BJP workers and supporters from as far Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar thronged the headquarters to participate in the jubilation.
When a TV reporter at the spot did a live, telling his anchor there was no movement whatsoever at the BJP office, an annoyed BJP worker tried to interrupt him by denying what was apparent. But his attempt to salvage the situation was unsuccessful as no one joined him in support. Why? Because no one was there.
Some workers did complain as BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari did not to show up at the headquarters. Despite the loss, the opinion was that he should have met his party the workers to express solidarity.
And, as the counting progressed, it became hard to contest the fact that the AAP was going to come back with a thumping majority. In the midst of this realisation, a poster at the party office grabbed everyone's attention.
It read, and I translate: ‘When we win, we do not become arrogant and when we lose, we do not get disappointed.’
The poster could be seen on the right, right after entering the headquarters. As videos and pictures of this poster, with a smiling Amit Shah in the foreground, reached various news studios, you could hear pundits asking if it meant that the BJP was ready to lose the Delhi polls.
A senior national media incharge with a tilak on his forehead went around screaming in anger, conveying to the spokespersons sitting on their chairs that the poster was, in fact, ten years old.
"Tell them, tell them the truth," he said, gesticulating in the air and staring at anyone who came his way.
Soon after, I interviewed a BJP spokesperson and cautiously asked him about the need to rejig the party’s strategy. I expected him to be diplomatic in his response but, he clearly said that the BJP had lost the election and would need to re-evaluate why.
As word got out of the impending AAP rout, spokespersons were instructed not to accept the defeat already. Chaos ensued as spokespersons tried to mediate varied responses.
The mood was fairly obvious though. No one was expecting the BJP to make a comeback and the party workers soon began indulging in blame games.
While some blamed Tiwari for being an outsider, others blamed the party’s ticket distribution and questioned the logic of putting up candidates from the wrong constituencies. Disgruntled BJP workers, who had not got tickets, were the loudest.
While fingers were being pointed at everyone, no one spoke a word against PM Modi or Shah's strategy. If anything, the consensus was that any seats won were a result of the top leaders’ campaigning in Delhi.
The few karyakartas who had showed up also left as the day progressed. But, unlike the national BJP representatives, Delhi BJP seemed a lot more approachable. They seemed kinder, and offered food and tea to the journalists present.
Some also made it a point to introduce this reporter to other BJP members present. A peek into the infighting and factionalism within the Delhi BJP, however, exposed how disgruntled they were.
While the BJP has maintained that its core strategy of fighting elections on nationalism and the Shaheen Bagh protests was not wrong, taking cues from the poster, one could definitely sense nirasha or disappointment all through counting day.
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