Jharkhand: BJP’s two-day meeting to review poll debacle gets underway

Ranchi, Nov 30 (PTI) The Jharkhand BJP’s two-day review meet to deliberate on factors that led to the party’s poll debacle in the state got underway here on Saturday.

A series of meetings are scheduled to be held over two days in presence of party national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, state in-charge Laxmikant Bajpai and state BJP chief Babulal Marandi, among others.

The saffron party had contested 68 seats in the recent assembly polls in Jharkhand, but managed to secure only 21 seats.

“We accept the people’s mandate… The candidates shared their poll experience. Every aspect is being reviewed. The BJP will again reach out to people as an organisation. The poll percentage, however, has been encouraging for us. I congratulate the ruling coalition, which contested with a better strategy,” BJP leader Amar Kumar Bauri said.

Koderma legislator and BJP leader Neera Yadav said the poll results were unexpected.

“BJP workers are dedicated and very sensitive. I think somewhere we could not give them their due respect, especially the old workers… This may be one of the reasons behind the result, but this is my personal opinion,” Yadav said.

Former MLA and the party’s Godda candidate Amit Mandal said they would find out the reasons behind the party’s disappointing performance in the review meeting.

“We did not expect the results, especially in the Santhal Parganas. We will rectify our faults and emerge stronger,” he said.

The JMM-led alliance last week stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-led NDA managed 24 seats.

JMM leader Hemant Soren took oath as the 14th Chief Minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony here on Thursday.