1. Was BJP always in two minds on
its chances in Delhi and that ultimately resulted in the mess that we saw in
these assembly polls, as it could really never assess its ground properly and that
made it try to delay the Delhi polls
until polls became inevitable? Assembly polls could have been held soon after
the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, BJP chose to keep on delaying the polls. Let's
safely assume that had the BJP's central leadership decided on facing the polls
earlier, the Lieutenant-Governor nod, with L-G being a central government appointee
and representative, would never be an issue.
2. The natural question that
emerges from this is - what made BJP feel so, not sure of its chances -
especially after a brilliant history making performance in the Lok Sabha polls?
3. The natural corollary, in turn
to the previous question is - did the BJP believe, in spite of making a war-cry
about it in public, that the 'deserter act' was not enough to put Kejriwal in
the dock of an incriminating public trial? Going by the projections of the Exit
Polls, it seems BJP was right, if its leaders indeed thought so.
4. That takes us spontaneously to
the next question - if it was so, if BJP was not confident about the 'the
deserter tag card', why didn't it build an alternate strategy to corner
Kejriwal? Throughout the campaign run, the main point to target Kejriwal was
'his deserter act' mixed with 'alleged acts of anarchy by Kejriwal and his camp
like protests against an elected government' .
5. So, where did BJP err - in
calculating the anti-Kejriwal or anti-AAP public sentiment - or in assessing
the ground beneath its feat in Delhi's politics - or in both?
6. Or was it an act of sheer
negligence, fuelled by over-confidence? Winning the Lok Sabha polls with clear
majority, first party to do so after 1984, and winning three assembly polls in
quick succession, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and emerging as the second largest
party in Jammu & Kashmir - did the confidence thereafter make Delhi a light
affair for BJP strategists who believed things could be managed but when they
realized the seriousness of affairs, of their faulty handling of Delhi
elections, it had become too late to reverse the tide?
7. Who are all responsible for
this negligence? Would BJP do an honest introspection to plug the holes given
the fact that an AAP sweep would be an underperformance by BJP and would hurt
party's chances in cracking the citadels of electoral politics in India - Bihar
this year, West Bengal the next year and Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Losing these
three states would make a 2019 re-run much more difficult for Narendra Modi and
BJP.