As the 2009 general elections brought disappointment and disdain for the Bhartiya Janata Party, the coming months had more packages to reveal as many problems emerged on the centre stage.
The tussle for power within the party became known to the whole nation as well, and meanwhile people directly involved for the debacle were busy finding scapegoats so as to save their position and power and of the fear that RSS would take serious measures against them. Some of the victims of this were Satyender Kulkarni, Jaswant Singh, Jaswant Sinha who were either suspended or forced to resign from the party; and due to all this fighting and no leader directly taking the charge for the loss, questions are being raised in the political streets that whether BJP will be able to come to power in the coming decades.
It will be tedious for the saffron party to recover the lost ground but if we look back into the history we find that the party is known for its comebacks, as it did in 1989 after a very backbreaking performance in the early 80s when the party was formed. From a position of a two seat party it formed the government three times and as the saying goes, “history repeats itself” so BJP cannot be ruled out so easily. But the main question is whether BJP will ever be able to rise to the occasions.
The main problems which BJP is facing are:
1. Lack of a charismatic, bold, and young and most importantly leaders acceptable to all other parties as this is an era of coalition. It needs a leader who can fit into the shoes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
2. Lack of unity within the party. This was one of the main causes of the loss because the whole country knew about the tussle between the top brass leaders which created a ripple effect on the voters. For example, fight between Arun Jaitely and Rajnath Singh.
3. BJP is almost negligible in a few states and in few it is not even known, such as in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and in some losing its own ground as in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. This figure constitutes nearly about 150 seats of Lok Sabha so it is very difficult for it to win the majority with the remaining seats.
4. It is losing its most trusted middle class voters due to its drawing room and sci-fi politicians. The party is also not able to reach to the masses due to lack of coordination between the top rung leaders and the party workers.
5. BJP is very slow and low in picking up the issues concerning common people and is all the time busy crying about Pakistan, Terrorism, Jinnah, Babri Masjid etc. where as it should have focused on issues such as raising the life style of common masses so that whole of India should become one.
6. Re-emergence of congress in 2004 due to anti incumbency and rise of Rahul Gandhi as a charismatic leader due to his young age and the change he wants to see in India.
The main hurdles for the BJP which it will have to overcome in order to come back strongly and the steps it must take are as follows:
1. It will have to groom a leader in such a way that the whole country and the coalition parties also accept him as the future of India. It will be a very tough call because in the present context the party lacks a young and dynamic leader acceptable to all because dynamic leaders such as Narender Modi, Varun Gandhi lack acceptability due to their over aggressive stance on various matters such as that of hindutva.
2. Strict disciplinary guidelines should be followed and each leader should be given charge of a respective states and no other leader should interfere in their field of work. He should be accountable to the party chief only. Party cadres should be evolved so as to make its presence felt in almost all the states for this proper coordination should be maintained along with supervision so that the party can reach to every section of the society.
3. BJP needs to change its spin doctors because their every move has backfired in recent past and it should concentrate more on raising the common problems.
These are some major points on which BJP must think harder so as to keep itself in the race.
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