It would be worth mentioning here that BJP lost nine assembly seats won by the party in difficult time of 2012 assembly polls when there was wave in favour of Samajwadi Party.BJP had won 10 assembly seats and one was from alliance partner Apna Dal whose president Anupriya Patel is MP.

BJP leaders as well as political analysts wonder as to why party deviated from development plank of Narendra Modi which installed him as prime minister.

BJP leaders were very critical of the politics of communal polarization and love jihad being propagated by certain leaders in the by-elections. They were quite unhappy that situation came to such a pass that the election commission had to issue notice to Yogi Adityanath for his controversial statements.

Senior leaders of the party are saying in party circles that irresponsible statement of Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj were also responsible for defeat of party in the by-polls.

But on the other hand, Yogi Adityanath said party won from those two constituencies Lucknow and Noida where he went. He claimed that party could not perform well in those constituencies where he could not reach for campaigning although he was very in demand.

BJP leaders complained that central leadership did not take these elections seriously and they were under the impression they would sweep the polls as they did in Lok Sabha polls only few month ago when they got 73 out of the total of 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP.

No senior minister from UP visited state to campaign for party candidates in these by-polls.

So much so, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who is sitting MP from Lucknow did not come to campaign for BJP candidate Ashutosh Tandon son of veteran BJP leader Lalji Tandon. It would be worth mentioning here that Lalji Tandon did not contest from Lucknow to enable Rajnath Singh to go to Lok Sabha.

Senior BJP leader and former state president Vinay Katiyar complained that the committee of former presidents was not consulted on any issue.

Another veteran BJP leader Om Prakash Singh who belongs to kurmi backwards said that marginalization of OBCs and MBCs and dalits by the BJP leadership during last decade is also responsible for defeat of party in the these by-polls. He maintains that 2014 victory was that of Narendra Modi not that of BJP.

He further said that BJP leaders expected that the Modi magic will once again bring all 11 assembly sets and one Lok Sabha from Mainpuri to BJP kitty which never happened.

Mr Om Prakash Singh is of the opinion that party had been ignoring dalits and OBCs for quite some time and would hold conference only during the polls which had no impact.

Singh further said that BJP was known for collective decisions and candidates for these 11 assembly constituencies during by-polls were selected by a group of persons and there had been no meeting of election committee.

There is great demand in the rank of file of the party to bring about overhauling of party organization giving importance to OBCs, MBCs, and dalits. Attempts should also be made to involve youth in the changes.

BJP leader complained that there was time when state leadership was with persons like Kalyan Singh who is now governor in Rajasthan and Keshrinath Tripathi who is also governor in West Bengal People want that more dynamic person should replace Dr Luxmikant Vajpai as state president. (IPA)