New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) The bid to pitchfork Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its main face, non-projection of a local personality and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's comments on reservation appeared to have backfired for the BJP that put up a disastrous show in the Bihar assembly elections.
Issues like beef in the wake of Dadri lynching and party chief Amit Shah's controversial remarks that firecrackers will go off in Pakistan if the grand alliance won also failed to yield benefits for the party that campaigned against the "return of jungle raj".
The defeat for the NDA, a second setback for Modi in less than ten months after rout in Delhi, was total as it lost badly across the state, even in the Tirhut region where Shah had predicted a sweep for the alliance.
Only a majority of upper castes, sections of extremely backward castes and a chunk of Dalits seemed to have given their support to the BJP and its three allies with the grand alliance walking away with a lion's share of backward castes and overwhelming majority of Muslims.
If the BJP lost two-thirds of about 157 seats it contested, its allies fared poorer still with Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP winning only three out of 41 seats and Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP winning two out of 23.
Mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi's, who was given a big poll profile by the BJP, dream of emerging as the preeminent Schedules Castes leaders was shattered in the wave in the favour of Kumar, whom he had ditched to join hands with BJP.
Manjhi was the sole winner could in the 21 seats his Hindustan Awam Morcha (secular) contested.
If there was one moment that put BJP on a defensive mode from which it could never recover was RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's suggestion for a review of reservation, giving the grand alliance a potent weapon which Prasad and Kumar exploited to the hilt.
As BJP sensed a tough going following the first two phases of elections, party strategists decided to talk up Modi's extremely backward caste origin to woo the community and then played the religion card.
The Prime Minister, himself raked up Kumar's past advocacy for a quota for Muslims saying that he had tried to "snatch" it from the backward class to hand it over to a "particular community".
The controversies over beef and Modi and Shah raking up the reservation issue time and again to wean away OBCs and Dalits appeared to have consolidated the minorities against the BJP while failing to impress the backward among the Hindus.'
The 'mandal' credentials of the two backward satraps, Kumar and Prasad, proved too formidable for their voters to inject any doubt in their mind.
Shah's controversial "firecrackers will burst in Pakistan if BJP loses" remark may have further polarised minorities in the favour of the grand alliance without bringing him the dividends he would have expected.
In a state seen as a bastion of 'mandal' politics, BJP also appeared to have missed a trick by giving over 40 per cent of its tickets to upper castes who together make up for little more than 14 per cent of voters.
After two phases of polling and resentment over "Delhi domination", the party sought to correct course by incorporating pictures of local leaders but that was perhaps too late.
Issues like beef in the wake of Dadri lynching and party chief Amit Shah's controversial remarks that firecrackers will go off in Pakistan if the grand alliance won also failed to yield benefits for the party that campaigned against the "return of jungle raj".
The defeat for the NDA, a second setback for Modi in less than ten months after rout in Delhi, was total as it lost badly across the state, even in the Tirhut region where Shah had predicted a sweep for the alliance.
Only a majority of upper castes, sections of extremely backward castes and a chunk of Dalits seemed to have given their support to the BJP and its three allies with the grand alliance walking away with a lion's share of backward castes and overwhelming majority of Muslims.
If the BJP lost two-thirds of about 157 seats it contested, its allies fared poorer still with Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP winning only three out of 41 seats and Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP winning two out of 23.
Mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi's, who was given a big poll profile by the BJP, dream of emerging as the preeminent Schedules Castes leaders was shattered in the wave in the favour of Kumar, whom he had ditched to join hands with BJP.
Manjhi was the sole winner could in the 21 seats his Hindustan Awam Morcha (secular) contested.
If there was one moment that put BJP on a defensive mode from which it could never recover was RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's suggestion for a review of reservation, giving the grand alliance a potent weapon which Prasad and Kumar exploited to the hilt.
As BJP sensed a tough going following the first two phases of elections, party strategists decided to talk up Modi's extremely backward caste origin to woo the community and then played the religion card.
The Prime Minister, himself raked up Kumar's past advocacy for a quota for Muslims saying that he had tried to "snatch" it from the backward class to hand it over to a "particular community".
The controversies over beef and Modi and Shah raking up the reservation issue time and again to wean away OBCs and Dalits appeared to have consolidated the minorities against the BJP while failing to impress the backward among the Hindus.'
The 'mandal' credentials of the two backward satraps, Kumar and Prasad, proved too formidable for their voters to inject any doubt in their mind.
Shah's controversial "firecrackers will burst in Pakistan if BJP loses" remark may have further polarised minorities in the favour of the grand alliance without bringing him the dividends he would have expected.
In a state seen as a bastion of 'mandal' politics, BJP also appeared to have missed a trick by giving over 40 per cent of its tickets to upper castes who together make up for little more than 14 per cent of voters.
After two phases of polling and resentment over "Delhi domination", the party sought to correct course by incorporating pictures of local leaders but that was perhaps too late.
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