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Prashant Kishor on why BJP lost in UP: ‘Internal dynamics could’ve played a part’

Prashant Kishor explains why the BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
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Mehak Agarwal
Updated Jun 12, 2024, 10:54 AM IST

Political strategist Prashant Kishor
Poll analyst and Jan Suraaj president Prashant Kishor said in a recent interview that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could’ve gotten trounced by the INDIA alliance in Uttar Pradesh in the recent Lok Sabha polls due to the internal dynamics of the saffron party.

He further said that the outcome is also likely due to the lack of coordination between the saffron party’s state unit and the Central leadership.

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In a shocker, the BJP won on 33 seats whereas its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won on 2 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections, taking the NDA’s total tally to 35 in the country’s most populous state.
The Samajwadi Party won 37 seats whereas the Congress managed to win 6 seats, including Rae Bareli and Amethi. With this, the INDIA alliance’s total number of seats went to 43.

"BJP’s internal dynamics in UP could have played a part in whatever their situation is in UP. Probably, they were complacent, the organisation and leadership probably would not have been in sync. That, they have to analyse," Kishor said in an interview with India Today’s Rahul Kanwal and Rajdeep Sardesai.

He also explained that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, redoing the UP ke Ladke campaign in Uttar Pradesh, was a real challenge to the BJP this time around.

"I am saying the same UP ke ladke are coming together. Now, the public is saying if you want to defeat Yogi, Akhilesh and Rahul can do so if they come together. They fought together in 2017 (assembly polls) and that is the biggest mistake on my part. How can you fight these two?"

Furthermore, he said that the BJP supporters became blasé as they thought they were going to win anyway. Kishor said that the BJP’s opponents, on the other hand, went on an aggressive campaign as they had the purpose of stopping the BJP from winning 400 seats.

"I give you the example of Varanasi. In Modi’s own’s seat, his vote share has decreased by only 2 per cent compared to 2014. But the margin has come down a lot because his opponent’s vote share increased from 20.9 per cent to 41 per cent," Kishor explained.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi won from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat by securing 6.12 lakh votes and a vote share of 54.24 per cent. He defeated Congress’ Ajay Rai by a margin of around 1.5 lakh votes.

Modi’s winning margins in 2024 were much less when compared to that of 2019 and 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Modi defeated Samajwadi Party’s Shalini Yadav by a margin of over 4.79 lakh votes. In 2014, Modi trounced Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of over 3.71 lakh votes.