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Bihar verdict is BJP’s collective loss: Jaitley

I don’t see any reason that he will decide that his party will change its stand on GST just because they are in alliance with the Congress. This has relevance for the passage of important but stuck-in-Parliament-logjam bills like the GST, which require constitutional amendment such that a majority of the total membership of the house (122 of total 244 in Rajya Sabha) and a special majority of two-thirds of members present and voting to support it. The government was planning to implement GST from 1 April, but pushed back the date to the beginning of any month in 2016-17.

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The BJP’s Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body, convened a meeting at 4 pm on Monday to assess the Bihar loss.

Jay Shankar, Chief India Economist and Director, Religare Capital Markets, based on an analysis, feels that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP, is unlikely to gain even a simple majority in the Upper House until 2018, assuming that they do well in the state assembly elections wherever they are traditionally strong. “Fortunately, Bihar under Nitish ji is supporting us on this issue”. “They should continue at a rapid pace”, he said.

The Bihar defeat will hamper PM Modi’s push to pass economic reforms; he needs to win most state elections in the next three years to gain full control of parliament.

Shourie, a minister within the Vajpayee authorities, who’s not with the party, accused Shah and Jaitley of “fomenting” a coalition towards Modi by forcing the opposite opposition events, which commanding over sixty nine per cent of vote, to get into an alliance. “People of Bihar deserve all round development”.

A labour ministry official, who declined to be named, said the labour reform agenda will continue as the government believes it is key to economic growth and job creation.

“We are committed to eradicating poverty, and the results won’t affect the government at the centre”.

Ahmed Hassan, Rajya Sabha parliamentarian of the All India Trinamool Congress, echoed the sentiment.

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Asked what went fallacious with the party’s Bihar marketing campaign, he stated, “the whole lot”. “The political dynamics, belief and strategy will change from today onwards”, he said.

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