After a “below par” showing in the Assembly polls in the Capital, the Bahujan Samaj Party leadership took stock of the losses on Thursday.

Candidates who lost by narrow margins criticised the senior leadership and party cadres for “not doing enough”. “The votes polled were because of the candidates and not party leaders,” a contestant said.

Party supremo Mayawati had held rallies in Trilokpuri, Sultanpur Majra and Badarpur constituencies, out of which only ex-Congressman Ram Singh Netaji secured a win from Badarpur.

“Many other contestants deserved to win but lost by close margins because they were first-timers; more could have been done for them,” Kanwar Singh Tanwar, general secretary of the party’s Delhi unit said.

Tanwar said contestants had expected more from the party cadre. “Contestants from Deoli, Tughlaqabad, and others in South Delhi polled around 25,000 votes each; theirs have been close losses,” he said. Tanwar himself polled 26,000 votes, 6,000 behind the Congress candidate and 1,000 behind the BJP candidate.

In the Narela, Badli, Tughlaqabad, Okhla and Babarpur constituencies too candidates from the party have stood second and polled a good number of votes.

Sharad Chauhan, the contestant from Narela who lost to Jaswant Singh of the Congress by 835 votes, said, “Being first-timers, we probably did a few things wrong. Analysing the causes will be important and senior leaders should guide us.”

Senior leaders, meanwhile, highlighted the percentage votes polled in Lok Sabha constituencies in the Capital to calm down the angry candidates.

In a closed-door meeting held in Civil Lines today, senior party leaders from Uttar Pradesh Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Shripal Saini, Mahendra Singh Jatav, and Delhi unit in-charge Gaya Chand Dinker addressed them and said the losses have been close but the presence of the party will be felt in Delhi.

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