BSP's newly acquired Dalit-Brahmin vote base is temporary : BJP

Lucknow, June 2 (UNI) The BJP today admitted the 'wrong' perception of party being close to Samjawadi Party coupled with a strong anti-incumbency wave against the latter which BSP capitalised in a better way was the reason behind the results of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

'' Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party presented a better picture of credibility in order to be able to defeat Mulayam-led SP in the polls,''the Bharatiya Janata Party Gneneral Secretary and newly appointed in-charge of party affairs in UP Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

Terming the erosion of BJP vote bank as 'slippage' rather than a 'permanent shift', he said somehow people were made to believe that the BSP was in the best position to defeat the SP which resulted into its landslide victory in UP. ''Sadly, BJP could not establish its credentials in this regard,''he conceded.

Reiterating that the BJP and SP were poles apart in terms of ideology and policies, the senior BJP leader said his party could not do away with the perception of the proximity between both the parties. ''BJP has nothing to do with the SP but the common Anti-Congress posturing of both the parties may have given wrong impression about them which ultimately caused the undoing of our party,''he added.

Refusing to admit that the Dalit-Brahmin combination was the sole reason behind the erosion of BJP votes and subsequent BSP's success, Mr Jaitley said it was not the case since all the sections who thought BSP could defeat SP voted in Mayawati's favour.

Discarding the much-hyped 'Social Engineering' theory of BSP, the BJP General Secretary said it was a one-time phenomenon which was neither permanent nor long-term. ''It is a matter of time, when the support base of BSP slips and the immediate gainer would be the BJP,'' he pointed out.

Mr Jaitley said the party had already done the priliminary review of UP poll results and a constituency-wise detailed analysis would follow soon which would decide the future strategy of the party in the most populous state of the country.

In reply to a question about his reluctance to take up the assignment of the in-charge of party's affairs in UP, he said he was appointed the same only after he had given his consent to party President Rajnath Singh. ''According to me it will go down as one of the most challenging assignments of my political career had I am more than willing to take it up,'' he said.

Mr Jaitley was on his first visit to UP after having given the charge of UP succeding Mr Kalyan Singh who had resigned in the wake of party's drubbing at the polls. The new incumbent of the post today held meeting of the state BJP office bearers and discussed the political scenario after the UP poll results.

UNI