BJP's defeat in the 2024 West Bengal Lok Sabha election is an electoral wonder for many politics-conscious persons in India and West Bengal. BJP has had a serious setback to the recently declared Lok Sabha election result 2024, managed to bag only 12 seats which was a drop of 6 seats from 2019 when BJP completed the count with 18 winning seats. The TMC improved its performance and enhanced its tally from 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 to 29 seats in 2024. There might be a lot of reasons and factors that might lie behind the BJP's defeat in West Bengal.
However, as the most prominent factors and
reasons we might find these.
Have a look at the
points mentioned below:
Poor organization
BJP has a weak organization in West Bengal with
many internal conflicts. Lobbying, bypassing the real talents and dedicated
workers, with some like-minded persons at multiple levels and running a
parallel organization has been a bane to the party. One leader did not respect
his co-leaders and tried to surpass talented workers and active party members
by doing something wrong, keeping them in the dark. Higher authorities treated
grassroots-level leaders as the beast of burden.
Leaders at block and district labels needed
grass-root label leaders or karyakartas only when they needed to show good
numbers in various processions, programs, rallies, and activities. They took
their pictures and sent those to high commands to prove that the activities
were successful and all money allotted for the programs was spent. They were
more interested in showing their activities by clicking pictures rather than
working honestly and silently for the party to bring it to a good position.
They were more interested in their political career growth rather than
achieving stable growth and development for the party.
They did not offer transportation facilities
and refreshments to the booth-level workers coming from a distant village or
town to attend a program. High-level
leaders did not communicate with the grassroots-level leaders and local people.
They always have kept a safe distance and avoided them. They did not
communicate with them and discussed nothing when they took important decisions
like finalizing a candidate's name for the Lok Sabha election.
Failure in manipulation,
motivation and social penetration
No strong supply chain and organized workers
who can play an important role in the election journey from the time of
election declaration to the result. There are many phases in this journey pre,
during and post-election. In the preliminary stage, grassroots-level workers
must communicate with local people and execute everything required for building
good community relations. They must organize many social responsibility
programs and other awareness programs about the central government projects for
manipulation, motivation and social penetration so that they cast their vote
for the BJP. Lack of communication and coordination between high-level and
low-level leaders dismissed the chances of bringing the beneficiaries of
central government projects in many awareness programs to remind them about the
facilities they are enjoying from central government projects that can motivate
them to cast their votes for BJP. Thus, the BJP has missed a great opportunity
to reap the rich harvest of these. They
failed to create aware people and good voters for them.
Due to poor communication with end people and a
lack of coordination in various levels of leadership, the BJP failed to perform
well in the latest Lok Sabha election
Leaders should take measured steps so that
voters nurture a good image for the BJP and carry the same in the core of their
hearts till they reach before the EVM for casting their votes.
Inability in data
mining and data analysis
Poor organization, internal conflicts and the
gap between the BJP party and end people did not enable them to collect
adequate data through various surveys and sampling that can help them
understand probable booth-wise vote percentages in the upcoming elections. On
the other hand, TMC received a professional company, data analysts and data
mining experts to understand upcoming vote percentages and anti-incumbency
against a sitting TMC MP. Based on the collected data, TMC changed its
candidate and nominated many new faces. Bengal BJP accepted the rejected TMC
MPs and leaders and nominated them for their candidates in Lok Sabha Elections
2024, bringing the TMC anti-incumbency in their favour. This is one of the main
reasons for BJP's Bengal debacle.
Failed to address the
local issues
As there was a communication and coordination
gap between the high-level leaders and grassroots-level leaders (responsible
for getting in touch with local people), the BJP failed to address the local
issues that could be a deciding factor for a block or an assembly. High-level
leaders failed to include local issues in important decision-making and
agenda-setting for the Lok Sabha election campaign.
Leadership Failure
This is probably the main reason for BJP's
failure in Bengal. Many high-label BJP leaders in Bengal are ineligible. They
do not deserve the designations offered to them. They failed to understand the
potentiality and specific quality of a new and young leader. Although a few
senior leaders who understood the new talents and abilities of the fresh and
young leaders, tried their level best to suppress them, getting scared of
losing their positions and designations. Instead of encouraging them, senior
leaders left no stone unturned to make junior and new leaders null and
void.
The BJP lacked proper coherence in their
political and election campaign in Bengal due to the lack of a mass leader. It
has hurt the party very much.
No participatory model
for sharing and exchanging opinions
Senior and high-level BJP leaders did not
follow any participatory model and encouraged no low-level leaders to share and
exchange their opinions with them. They forcefully imposed their opinion and
decisions on the bottom-line leadership team and compelled them to accept their
decisions. The bottom-line leadership team worked for the party not by choice
but by compulsion. There is only a top-down structure for one-way communication
from top to bottom to obey the commands and orders coming from the hierarchies
or high commands.
No value to low-level
leaders
High-level BJP leaders did not care about BJP leaders
working at the bottom lines or grassroots levels. District and block-level
leaders avoided grass-root level leaders and did not feel the necessity of
their involvement and active participation in organizational policies and
politics. They neglected them and did not allow them when they approached them
with their opinions and problems.
High-level BJP leaders needed them- only when
they required many numbers to show off to their high commands or higher
authorities to prove the success of a program and steal some amount allotted
for the program. To keep more money in their pockets, they used to organize a
program and run it until all gather there and they can take pictures of the
gatherings to send those to their higher authorities. They cut short the program
and released all people (with no refreshments, transport costs or even a cup of
tea) immediately after taking many pictures of them.
No confidence and security
for the bottom line or booth level leaders
Many booth-level leaders, who run the party at
a low level, paying from their pocket, did not receive any value from the
party. They lose in three ways- run the party from their pocket, invest time in
a program (avoiding their duties and responsibilities to feed their families
and earn livelihoods for them), and spend money for transportation when they
need to go to attend meetings. As a consequence of these, they become soft
targets of the ruling parties and receive attacks and fake police cases as an
active BJP party member. When they seek help from high-level BJP leaders to
save them and help them escape from adverse situations created by the police
and ruling party, high commands pay no heed to them. Consequently, they lose
their confidence in the BJP party and subsequently become inactive.
Weak on-ground
election machinery
Internal conflicts from the booth level to the
state level made the state BJP very weak on ground election machinery. Much
reliance on central leadership and incompetent leadership at various levels has
worsened the situation. Lack of communication and coordination at many levels
made Bengal BJP weak enough to counter TMC's narrative set for central funds,
CAA and many sensitive issues like these.
