New Delhi: BJP leaders in Jharkhand have questioned the role played by state election in-charge Om Prakash Mathur after the disastrous loss in the state election. Mathur, according to multiple state leaders, did not independently perform the role that was given to him and rather went by whatever was communicated to him by former Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
“He was told sab badhiya hai by Das. Mathur communicated the same to the top,” a senior Ranchi-based BJP leader said.
As a result, Mathur was not able to convey to the top the slide of the BJP among the party workers and other state leaders, who had been communicating to him that election-related decisions taken by Das were not going to work.
The state leaders question the need of appointing an election in-charge if the man appointed does not have the courage to speak up against the state leaders and question and veto their decisions.
“Mathur, rather than just believing whatever Das told him, should have also taken into account what the other leaders were telling him. It was evident in all the election-related meetings that Das was standing alone. Due to his arrogance and inability to take along other state leaders, he had pushed away all the state leaders and, therefore, he was not getting the actual feedback from the ground. Mathur should have seen this, he didn’t,” a Jamshedpur based party leader who has been closely associated with Das and the party for more than three decades, said.
According to him, Das had surrounded himself with “yes men” and hence could not see that the ground had already slipped under his feet and was very confident of an easy win till the day of the elections.
The Ranchi unit of the party had purchased 500 kg of laddoos that were to be distributed on Monday to celebrate the party’s win, which never came.
However, another state leader defended Mathur’s role by saying that there was nothing he could do as it was a “one man Raghubar” show till the results started coming in.
“Everyone knew Das was selected by the PM himself. Das, too, behaved accordingly. Mathur could not do much. Moreover, he was appointed as the election in-charge in August, what could he do? If he went against Das, would that have helped?” the leader asked.
Mathur, according to those who hold him responsible for the loss, said that he should have placated the workers and leaders who were against Das.
“He should have told them that the party will change Das once the elections are won. If Mathur had done his job with more responsibility, he would have told the leaders in Delhi that until and unless Das’ decisions are checked, the party will lose; he didn’t. He didn’t seriously reach out to someone like Saryu Roy who was one of the pillars of the party. Das told everyone that Roy is nothing and joked that he might not even get 10,000 votes. Roy emerged as the face of anti-Das sentiments. As fate would have it, Roy in the end got almost 74,000 votes, 16,000 more than what Das got. What does this show? Over-confidence on the part of Das and those who were entrusted with winning the elections?” a Jamshedpur-based party functionary said.