UP Bypolls: Will go back to drawing board, say UP BJP leaders

Lucknow: Stung by the unexpected reversals in two crucial Lok Sabha by-polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP said today it will go back to the drawing board and revisit its strategy ahead of the general elections next year especially with the SP and BSP drawing closer.

“We had not seen the Samajwadi Party and BSP coming together but since we have come to know of this now…and though there is still a long time (ahead of the polls)…we will redraw our strategy keeping this factor in mind,” senior minister is the Yogi Adityanath government, Sidharth Nath Singh, said stressing that those who wanted development were still with the saffron party.

He said the party was only attacking the SP during the poll campaign. “As we had not thought about the coming together of SP and BSP, it was not part of our strategy and we were attacking only the SP. BSP was not in the poll fray. We also got less time to counter it,” Singh said.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the reasons for the unsatisfactory performance will be reviewed and stock-taking of the social and other factors that came into play in these polls would be done.

“BJP had won the Phulpur seat for the first time in 2014 but Gorakhpur has been with the party since long…We will have to see where the social factors went against us or where the workers did not work as hard as expected of them,” Maurya said.

We will sit and find a way to deal with the challenge that they (SP) posted later in the campaign taking the help of BSP, Maurya said.