After the veterans criticised the leadership of the party over Bihar debacle, BJP leadership in Delhi, where the party faced a similar rout eight months ago, is also demanding accountability and fixing of responsibility.
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Former deputy prime minister LK Advani, ex party president Murli Manohar Joshi and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha released a statement late yesterday questioning the direction of the party after the defeat, which risks embarrassing Modi just ahead of a visit to Britain this week.
Two days after the BJP posted a poor performance in the Bihar state elections, a few of the party’s veteran leaders declared that “no lessons had been learnt from the Delhi fiasco”.
Singh also asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can not be held responsible for NDA’s humiliating defeat.
“BJP had created a hype over Bihar elections and made its campaign high-profile in tune with it. So, the reaction would also be of that proportion”, Mr Kumar said.
“The party will discuss this matter on various other forums including with senior leaders and attempt to overcome the shortcomings that led to the adverse verdict in Bihar”, they wrote.
“The letter penned by BJP party elders reflects what many within the BJP have said in private, but were unwilling to articulate publicly”, said Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie Endowment for global Peace. “Obviously, all party members are concerned with the results of the assembly elections in Bihar”.
Correspondents say BJP party elders were sidelined after Mr Modi became leader in 2013 and Tuesday’s statement is being read as the first sign of a rebellion.
“It’s BJP’s loss and not of the Prime Minister”, he said.
Interesting will be the case of the Congress. It is a known fact now that Rahul Gandhi played a vital role in persuading Lalu Prasad to accept Nitish Kumar as the leader of the Grand Alliance and the future chief minister if the alliance won the elections.
“Voters in the country’s third most populous state have sent Modi a message: Put an end to the hate-mongering”, The NY Times said in an editorial: A Rebuke to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I condemn the insinuation”, he said.
He was reacting to a query whether party chief Amit Shah would be held responsible for the defeat. We had won elections in the past, we had lost elections in the past.
Over the past year, Modi has struggled to pass laws, including tax and labor reforms, and now faces an opposition with political momentum. “Bhagwat’s statement was not damaging”.
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Amid a raging controversy on the intolerance issue, Jaitley said India is the “most tolerant” society in the world and it will “reject” any contention that “a stray incident happening in any part of India will make it intolerant”.
