In what could spell a revival of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) shrinking hold amidst voter base, as revealed through the unexpected, though if not shocking, results of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari cautioned the saffron party for not repeating the mistakes that their opposition and grand old party of India, the Congress did, leading to latter’s ouster from government. Recalling BJP veteran LK Advani’s remark ‘BJP is a party with a difference’ he advised the party leadership to uphold its trust amongst its voters by not going the Congress way.
Speaking at a party meeting in Goa, the former BJP president and Union minister said if the BJP continued to do what the Congress did, there was no use of their exit and BJP’s entry.
At a high level meeting of Goa BJP unit attended by Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant and BJP state unit president Sadanand Tanavade, the Union minister that “Advani Ji used to say that our party was with a difference and that we will have to understand how different we are from other parties. He further stated that BJP was voted to power due to the mistakes committed by the Congress.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a public meeting recently had also said that ‘over confidence’ had led to unexpected results in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He said, the performance of BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections besides in UP assembly polls of 2017 and 2022 had set the tone for massive victory in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the overconfidence of BJP grass root workers of winning seats comfortably had led to recovery of an otherwise deflated opposition.
Referring to vote share of BJP in previous 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls besides in 2017 and 2022 UP Assembly elections, the UP CM said, despite what happened in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, vote share of the party remained the same.
It may be mentioned that immediately after Lok Sabha poll results, Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had said that a true ‘Sewak’ was not meant to be arrogant and instead served the people by maintaining dignity.
