Populist budget likely as Raje, team discuss bypoll losses

work for the party candidate,” a BJP leader requesting anonymity said, adding that the party lost in all 16 assembly segments in the two Lok Sabha seats.

A retired professor of mass communication of Rajasthan University Narayan Bareth said the causes for BJP’s defeat are “crystal clear”. “Inefficiency, corruption and arrogance are the reasons,” he said.

The party is expected to do some course correction during the budget session starting from Monday. “One should expect a populist budget that may set its house in order to prevent a repeat of the rout in the Assembly elections slated for later this year,” said another political commentator Hari Shankar Goyal.

In the by-elections held on January 29, results of which were declared on February 1, Congress candidate Dr Karan Singh Yadav defeated BJP’s Dr Jaswant Singh Yadav by 196,496 votes in Alwar.

In Ajmer, Congress candidate Raghu Sharma defeated BJP’s Ramswaroop Lamba, son of former MP Sanwar Lal Jat, whose death necessitated the election, by 84,414 votes. BJP also lost in Mandalgarh Assembly constituency, which was vacated by the death of BJP MLA Kirti Kumari. In Mandalgarh, Vivek Dhakar of Congress defeated BJP’s Shakti Singh Hada by 12,946 votes. In 2013, BJP won 163 seats in a house of 200 members. The number today is 160. The Congress tally has gone up from 21 in 2013 to 25 now. BJP swept the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by winning all 25 seats.