Grappling to revive the party’s lost glory after the dismal results in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP has set up a 60-member task force to determine the reasons for the electoral loss.

The BJP had won just 33 seats, and its alliance secured only 3 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress together won 43 seats.

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With by-elections in 9 assembly seats expected to be announced soon, the BJP is trying to identify the main reasons for the defeat and find ways to bring OBCs and Dalits back into the party fold.

A senior BJP leader said here on Thursday that the party has decided to investigate the reasons behind the low voting in favour of the BJP. For this purpose, a task force of party leaders will be formed.

The election results in UP have created panic among the local and top leadership of the BJP. This time, around nine per cent fewer votes were received compared to the last election.

He said around 60 party leaders have also been selected for this task. “These leaders will investigate the reasons for the defeat in every assembly constituency of all Lok Sabha constituencies. The members of the task force will go from village to village to determine which party has made inroads into the OBC and Dalit communities, who are considered the core voters of the BJP,” the leader added.

Apart from the officials of the organisation, local public representatives will also be a part of this task force.

The agenda of the task force will also include identifying those responsible for alienating non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits from the BJP. Besides, the party leaders involved in graffiti will also be traced. Despite the BJP forming the government at the Centre for the third time in a row, all the leaders are feeling the pain of losing UP, the strongest political ground for the party.

Sources said preliminary discussions have already been held between the government and the organisation regarding the BJP’s defeat in UP.

The top leaders of the state organisation have already met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and discussed this issue. Following this meeting, it was decided to form a special task force to find out the reasons for the defeat.

Meanwhile, as per the Lok Sabha results, out of the total 403 assembly segments, which covered 80 Lok Sabha seats, the ruling NDA was ahead in 177 assembly segments, while the INDI alliance was ahead in 221 assembly segments.

The 9 Lok Sabha seats where NDA candidates won all 5 assembly segments in each Lok Sabha constituency were Varanasi, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Agra, Mathura, Hathras, Bulandshahr, Gautam Buddha Nagar, and Baghpat.

On the other hand, the INDI alliance had won all the assembly segments in 14 Lok Sabha seats. They are Ambedkarnagar, Barabanki, Jaunpur, Robertsganj, Ghazipur, Ghosi, Azamgarh, Lalganj, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Kaushambi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, and Moradabad.

Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party had won all five assembly segments of the Nagina Lok Sabha seat. The BSP did not achieve success in any assembly segment.