UP Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The UP BJP leadership may have attributed "over confidence" among party workers and a false narrative created by the opposition - that the saffron party wants 400 plus seats to change the Constitution - to its dismal performance in UP in the Lok Sabha polls, but some losing candidates have openly accused their own party leaders of opposing them in the polls, and even demanded that such "traitors" be identified and acted against.
Firebrand saffron leader, two time MP and BJP candidate from Fatehpur LS seat Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti, who lost to Samajwadi Party (SP) nominee Naresh Uttam Patel, said that some party leaders "conspired" against her as they did not want her to win. ''I became the victim of a conspiracy hatched by some party leaders... this conspiracy had started the day my candidature was announced", she said.
Jyoti said that she would soon apprise the party leadership about such "traitors" and urge strict action against them.
Another saffron leader Sakshi Maharaj, who managed to win from Unnao seat by 40 thousand votes, also said that some party leaders worked with the rival candidate to prevent him from winning.
''I will identify the traitors within the party and expose them", Sakshi Maharaj, who had claimed that the BJP would win all the 80 LS seats in the state, said.
BJP's alliance partner and Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad, whose son Praveen Nishad lost to his SP rival in the Sant Kabir Nagar seat, said that the Dalit community supported the I.N.D.I.A. alliance as some BJP leaders said that the party would scrap the reservation if it got more than 400 seats.
Senior BJP leader and UP minister Satish Mahana, however, said that his party lost because of "over confidence". ''The workers and leaders were sure that the party would win all the seats.. they did not work hard", he said.
State BJP sources revealed that there were complaints by several MPs that the local MLAs had not campaigned for them in their respective constituencies and at some places they either remained inactive or supported the rival party.
BJP managed to win only 32 seats while its allies won 3 in the state. The I.N.D.I.A. alliance bagged 44 seats from the state; 1 seat was won by an independent candidate.