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Drawing an analogy from the Mahabharat, one message said on the one hand was Abhimanyu (Yogi) all by himself, and on the other the entire army of the Kauravas.

On a Whatsapp group named ‘Mananiya Yogi Ji CM UP’, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and supporters in Uttar Pradesh were abuzz with competing theories to explain the loss in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

But first, here’s the group icon:

Here is a list of reasons:

1. Blame Amit Shah: Some posts place the blame squarely on BJP chief Amit Shah. They say the BJP didn’t listen to Yogi (by giving the ticket to someone who’s not from the Gorakhnath peeth). In its eagerness to snub him, the party forgot it did not have its own standing in Gorakhpur. The BJP exists there only because of the influence of the Gorakhnath peeth. Shah was mistaken to believe, one message said, that the seat was won because of the BJP. He thought anybody who’s made to contest Gorakhpur would win. Now he must have understood how Yogi can show the BJP its place.

2. OBCs, SCs not given their due: A message claimed that the OBCs and the SCs together comprised 85 per cent of the population and yet, neither an OBC nor an SC was made the chief minister, who is a Thakur. Not even the state party president, who is a Brahmin. It said the OBCs and the SCs were not being given respect in this government. Instead, it claimed, there were indications the government wanted to end reservations.

The person who sent this message felt very strongly about this and wanted people to keep forwarding it till it reached Yogi and Modi. His WhatsApp profile picture is:

3. Brahmin-Thakur rift: One message said that, given the allegations of ‘Thakurwaad (promoting Thakurs)’ against the Yogi Adityanath government, the Brahmins had been angry with the Yogi government. This has increased the rift between the Brahmins and the Thakurs in the area. It claimed that many Brahmins didn’t turn out to vote and some even voted for the Samajwadi Party (SP).

4. SP’s caste coalition: The SP put together a clever caste coalition with the Nishad Party and took the support of the Peace Party, a party of Muslims. The BJP was trapped in this caste coalition strategy, one message analysed. And then came the surprise: BSP support the BJP didn’t have time to prepare for.

Another message berated the SP for putting together a broad coalition. “Sharm aani chahiye aisi jeet per – thu (They should be ashamed of such a victory)!” it said. Drawing an analogy from the Mahabharat, it said that on the one hand was Abhimanyu (Yogi) all by himself, and on the other the entire army of the Kauravas.

5. Students are angry: CCTV cameras were not letting students cheat in exams, one message complained, while there were no CCTV cameras in classrooms to check teachers who didn’t teach. Students were not being given scholarships, or the laptops the government had promised them. Students, it said, didn’t vote for the BJP in the two seats.

6. Listen to party workers: Some complained about the party taking its workers for granted. In UP, political party office-bearers expect the bureaucracy and the police to take orders from the most junior of them, and so do BJP workers.

One message said government officials didn’t “listen” to BJP workers, who were then forced to beseech senior party leaders for help. This is why party workers were angry and decided to not mobilise voters in the two by-polls.

Another similar message spoke of an insensitive bureaucracy that didn’t solve people’s problems but threatened and intimidated them instead. When they were asked to investigate a matter by political bosses, they didn’t even go among the people to understand the problem.

These complaints are partly a reflection of the impression that the Yogi government has given bureaucrats a free hand.

7. BJP’s compromise with principles: One post pointed to an article in a Hindi newspaper that had a statement by a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader blaming the BJP’s defeat on its “mistake of compromising the party and the Sangh Parivar’s principles”. He cited as example the induction of former SP leader Naresh Agarwal into the party, objecting to it on the grounds that he had allegedly insulted Ram Lalla in the past.

8. Finally, a joke: One ‘joke’ shared on the group goes thus: The BJP deliberately lost these seats to prove that EVMs can’t be hacked.

Also read: The BJP is paying the price for alienating Dalits, UP bypoll results show

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