On the possibility of Mr. Prasad’s daughter Misa or either of his sons assuming the post of Deputy Chief Minister in the new Nitish Kumar government, Mr. Sinha said, “I don’t think it will happen”. “It shows those who would have appropriated credit are bent on shrugging off responsibility for the disastrous showing in Bihar”, the statement says.
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Yeddyurappa had gone a criticism spree against Mr. Advani just before quitting the BJP. Those same Biharis backed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies last May, encouraged by promises to create jobs and end corruption, helping the BJP become the first party in a generation to win a majority in India’s lower house of parliament.
The party’s Bihar MP RK Singh on Friday backed the veterans’ demand for fixing responsibility for the poll debacle after the four men received little support for days over their stance. The consequences of the Advani “letter bomb” will not be washed off by any jugglery of words by the BJP later. No wonder the old guard in the BJP is so nostalgic about “consensual politics”. The downslide in Modi’s acceptability as the leader is going to reduce the BJP’s prospects in six state elections, including Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam in 2016 and in UP in 2017. The statements come on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lunch with Queen Elizabeth in London.
“Modi and Shah alone can not be held responsible for the party’s poor show in Bihar”. Their shenanigans against their own party may not harm the party as much as their own career as BJP members.
Naidu, nevertheless, not directly criticised the veterans whereas talking to reporters in Bengaluru. After all, Shah had got BJP 71 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in last year’s general elections. It may be described as sycophancy or servility; a few would see as a manifestation of survival instinct. Arun Shourie, a one-time Modi ally-turned-trenchant critic, was not the only observer to note that India’s leader was unwilling to criticise those in his party who appeared to be inflaming tensions for electoral gain. Modi gave a free run to his handpicked BJP President Amit Shah who camped in Bihar for months and ran the election campaign like the CEO of a multinational company. Bihar MPs have also begun to speak up to say that the prime minister should not have spoken in the manner that he did during the campaign.
TO GO WITH INDIA-ELECTION-BIHAR BY AGNES BUNIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he delivers a speech during an election rally in Aurangabad in Bihar on October 9, 2015.
The ministers’ claims were contested by a source close to one of the seniors. In fact, this kind of centralisation of state elections – with Modi as the face of the campaign and no chief ministerial candidate declared in advance – was never practiced by the BJP earlier.
The BJP, however, suffered much more than a loss of seats – it lost Modi as a persuasive campaigner.
The mobilisation by PM Modi’s supporters for the Wembley stadium event is matched by the protesters who are planning a series of events to equal his itinerary. The attempt to make the BJP a cult around a leader has certainly stifled voices and spirits within the party.
Well, that is the crux of the whole problem and Modi has himself to blame for this.
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He was not checked from making those indiscreet remarks because nobody in the state unit of his party can stand up to him.
