Knives out for KV ahead of BJP ‘Manas Manthan’

OST Political Bureau
Bhubaneswar. Sep 22:

The dismal show of the BJP in the just concluded urban local body (ULB) polls has brought the fissures within the party to the fore.

The saffron party, which formed councils in 11 ULBs in the last urban polls in 2008, could only manage to emerge as the single largest party in the Rairangpur NAC. And even here, it can form the council only with the support of others.

Disappointed over the poor show in the polls, some party leaders blamed the leadership of KV Singhdeo and demanded introspection on the election result as soon as possible. They plan to corner Singhdeo and his close associates, who had managed the election, at the ‘Manas Manthan’ meeting they are pressing for.

“The state leadership is totally responsible for the poor show in the urban election. The election management was completely disorganized. While other political parties started their campaign from the beginning of September, our state leadership joined the fray just five to six days before the election,” said a senior leader of state BJP expressing his dissatisfaction with the state leadership.

He said there was need to introspect on the situation of the party in the state ahead of the 2014 general elections. “If a concrete decision was not taken at the proposed introspection meeting, we would take up the matter with the central leadership,” he said.

The BJP candidates could win only in 47 of the total 1121 wards under 66 ULBs where elections were held on September 19. Of the 66 ULBs, the BJP failed to open its account in about 40 bodies.

The Modi mantra also failed to prevent the poll debacle, the worst ever the party has faced