The RSS has slammed BJP's Lok Sabha election strategy, saying it had heavily depended on hi-tech means of campaigning and had gone "horribly wrong" in understanding the mood of voters.
RSS mouthpiece Organiser has said the BJP has lost touch with the people and went “horribly wrong in understanding the mood of the voters”, conceding that “so did the journal” which expected a much better performance from the party.
Blaming the BJP’s campaign management, the Organiser said that while the UPA government’s shortcomings were many, the BJP “failed in presenting itself as a better alternative offering stability and a national vision”.
“This has more to do with its mismanaged campaign and organisational weaknesses,” said the magazine, observing that “over-dependence on hi-tech and affluence” rather than on “grassroots constituency-level management damaged the party prospects”.
“Politics is played out in the field, not in AC chat rooms. There is a disconnect between the party and its mass base,” the Organiser remarked.
Hoping that the party would introspect “and undertake hopefully a stern and merciless dissection” of the reasons for its failure, the RSS mouthpiece dismissed analyses blaming hardline Hindutva as a reason for the debacle.
“There is no evidence to show that the ideology of the party has failed. There is also no evidence that the Modi campaign or Varun Gandhi’s speech damaged its prospects,” said the Organiser.
“The Congress won this election primarily on the shoulders of a friendly media. Almost every report on every channel and most of the print media depicted the Congress as doing the right thing and the BJP in poor light,” said the journal.
The Sangh mouthpiece also blamed the NDA government’s “shabby, misplaced enthusiasm for economic liberalisation” which hurt the middle income group and led to its “disenchantment” with the party. The BJP, once known as an urban middle-class party, now has more seats in rural and tribal areas.
“This aspect needs elaboration and deeper study. The BJP has to reassure and cultivate its constituency without being defensive or apologetic about its identity as a party with a difference,” it added.
The Organiser also suggested that the BJP give up “wasting time coaxing and cajoling recalcitrant partners”.
“People have become sick of coalition talks,” it said, adding that the BJP can now concentrate on building up the organisational structure in states where it is weak, “expand its catchment area and reaffirm its ideological purity”.
“If it is to emerge as an alternative to the Congress it has to shut its doors on all those who want to reshape it as a Congress B-team,” it said.
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