BJP has blamed erosion in the support of the OBC, polarisation of Muslim votes and failure of its alliance partners in getting their core voters to shift to the saffron party for the decline in its number of seats in the recently concluded assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
BJP had won 312 of the 403 assembly seats in 2017 assembly polls in the state but its tally went down to 255 in the recent polls showing a loss of 57 seats. The SP, which had won only 47 seats in 2017, managed to increase its tally to 111.
In a review report sent to the party's central leadership, the state BJP has, however, said that the party gained from the transfer of a section of the BSP core voters to its kitty in the polls.
A state BJP leader, who was privy to the content of the report, said in Lucknow on Friday that polarisation of the Muslim votes in favour of the rival Samajwadi Party (SP) also went against the saffron party in several assembly constituencies in the state.
The report, which ran into more than 80 pages, clearly admitted that there was a shift of a section of the OBC voters, who had wholeheartedly supported the saffron party in the 2017 assembly polls, toward the SP resulting in the loss of several seats.
It said that a section of the OBC communities, including 'Sainis, Kushwahas, Maurya, Pal, Rajbhar', did not support the party in the polls. The report expressed concern over the erosion of the OBC support base and stressed the need to re-visit the party's electoral strategy to win back their support in the future elections.
It also said that the Nishad Party (NP) and the Apna Dal (AD) failed to get their core voters to shift their support to the BJP. The report specifically pointed to the defeat of UP deputy chief minister and senior OBC leader Keshav Prasad Maurya in Sirathu assembly assembly seat, dominated by the 'kurmis', who were considered to be the core vote bank of the AD, to SP's Pallavi Patel.
The report however said that it gained from the shift of a section of BSP core voters toward it in the polls. The saffron party had managed to win a whopping 63 of the 84 reserved seats in the recent assembly polls in UP.
The report also expressed concern at the groundswell of support for the SP in the postal ballot. It said that the SP led the saffron party in the postal ballot on 311 seats.