Wrong candidate, wrong constituencies – what happened to BJP's 'robust' mechanism?

New Delhi: When BJP president JP Nadda explained the process for selection of BJP candidates or office bearers at Agenda Aaj Tak on December 13, it reflected the robust data-led infrastructure built by the saffron party just like any large multinational FMCG company.

Nadda then claimed that he could tell everything about any individual within three hours. 

“This is BJP. Biodata, visiting cards and greetings do not work here,” he said.

Here's the relevant part of the conversation:

While the BJP may have got 194 names right after some hard work, one wrong pick as Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh gave many people a reason to call the claim of 'robust' mechanism yet another jumla of the BJP.

Singh withdrew his name from the Lok Sabha poll contest from the Asansol seat in West Bengal on Sunday, a day after the BJP named him as its candidate from the constituency currently represented by Trinamool Congress's Shatrughan Sinha.

The BJP apparently decided to nudge Singh to step aside from the contest to defuse the controversy, more so when the party has seized on the Sandeshkhali row to go after the TMC leadership.

Prima facie, it was the context of Sandeshkhali and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for women empowerment that brought the world’s largest party on the back foot.

Initially, the BJP wanted to make the Asansol fight between two people coming from the entertainment arena - Singh vs Shatrughn Sinha of Trinamool Congress.

However, an interview of Singh with Aaj Tak in which he appeared unfit for any political opportunity made the BJP rethink its decision, BJP sources told NewsDrum.

50 मिनट से ज्यादा लंबा इंटरव्यू है, सिनेमा,संघर्ष,भोजपुरी,सब ठीक चल रहा था, लेकिन चुनावी मैदान में उतरने के लिए क्या मुद्दा होगा इनका,इसपर इनका ये जवाब है :-#PawanSingh pic.twitter.com/jYDGYyWhYy

— The Social Being (@D_Socialbeing) March 3, 2024

Although the BJP was prompt in course correction, the self-proclaimed ‘robust’ process has come under massive public scrutiny. 

BJP was slammed by many opposition leaders including Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for the kind of content Singh was creating, including the ones allegedly denigrating Bengali women.

While it is possible that the saffron party chased popularity over the quality of content, the party’s ‘robust’ mechanism failed to gauge the interest and basic understanding of a person about the responsibility he was being offered.

In the meantime, the opposition leaders were busy discussing BJP’s first list and believed that they would make the next government at the centre after Singh’s withdrawal as a candidate.

In yet another embarrassment, the BJP got some of the names of constituencies in Assam wrong on Saturday when it released the list of 11 out of 14 candidates in the state. 

The fact that Assam underwent delimitation was also not considered while announcing the first list.

As a result, it had to release a revised list for the state of Assam after making some corrections on Sunday.

"The number and name of the parliamentary constituencies have been corrected in the list of candidates for Assam state," posted the party on X while sharing the new list.

While this could be termed a genuine error in the form of typos, the selection of Pawan Singh exposes the mechanism of candidate selection in the party that boasts of data-led massive infrastructure.