Not even a dozen for the BJP under Rajnath

New Delhi, May 11 (UNI) In the first polls after Mr Rajnath Singh took over as party chief, the BJP today drew a near blank, winning just 10 of the 824 seats up for grabs in four states and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.

The party also managed a consolation victory in the Deeg assembly bypoll in Rajasthan with Divya Singh, a scion of Bharatpur royal family, defeating her nearest rival by 6,721 votes.

The ten seats into the party kitty came from Asom where late party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan was the poll incharge. This was a marginal increase from the eight seats it held in the previous house. The BJP had fielded 82 candidates for the 126 seats in the state Assembly.

In Kerala, where the BJP had put up candidates in 136 of the 140 seats, the party drew a blank. Senior BJP leader O Rajagopal lost badly from Palakkad.

It was a complete rout for the saffron party in Tamil Nadu (234 seats), Pondicherry (30) and West Bengal (294) also where it fielded candidates in 189, 25 and 29 seats respectively.

In all, the BJP had put up candidates in 461 constituencies in the four states and the lone UT which went to polls.

UNI VN DB2114