As the Congress took lead in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, having already swept Chhattisgarh away, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP expressed displeasure with his party’s politics, which had increasingly focused on issues like the Ram Mandir over development.
Speaking to ANI, BJP MP Sanjay Kakade said while he had expected a loss in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the results and trends from Madhya Pradesh were proving to be a shock.
“I knew we would lose in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but MP trends have come as a shock. I think we forgot the issue of development that Modi took up in 2014. Ram Mandir, statues & name-changing became the focus.”
Kakade was referring to the recent attitude adopted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who had increasingly taken to changing the names of towns and districts, such as Allahabad being rechristened Prayagraj and Faizabad being renamed Ayodhya, among others.
In fact, Adityanath, during a recent campaign tour in Telangana, also proposed renaming Hyderabad ‘Bhagyanagar’, should the BJP be voted to power in the state.
NDTV reported that this was hardly the first time Kakade had adopted such a hardline stance against his own party. Following the Gujarat polls last year, the BJP MP from Maharashtra reportedly predicted a loss for the party in the state, and was later forced to retract his statement after the party’s victory.
He had said he had not factored “PM Modi’s charisma” while making the prediction.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)