Reacting to the infighting within the BJP over Bihar debacle, chief minister Nitish Kumar said it is but natural in view of the high-profile campaign undertaken by the BJP during Bihar assembly elections.
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The grand alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress won the polls, giving a third straight term to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The NY Times in its story – titled ‘Modi concedes party’s defeat in Assembly elections for key State – said the Prime Minister “suffered a serious political setback” and it deprives the BJP of a “vital location” form which to spread its political dominance into northeast India including the large state of West Bengal.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with leaders of his party yesterday to discuss whether to overhaul policies and priorities in the wake of a humiliating defeat in elections in the eastern state of Bihar.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders like Shatrughan Sinha and Bhola Singh gave out statements in the media criticising the party’s strategy in the Bihar polls. Turning the knife, a senior RSS pracharak from Gujarat made oblique comments on the BJP leadership saying non-admission of mistakes due to “arrogance” causes more damage.
He accepted the fact that vote transferability was better in the Grand Alliance as compared to the NDA.
“The principal reason for the latest defeat is the way the party has been emasculated in the previous year”.
Accusing Modi of injecting communalism instead of talking about Bihar’s development in his campaign, Singh said that Modi fell into the trap of RJD president Lalu Prasad by using inappropriate language.
The BJP won 53 assembly seats, followed by LJP 2, RLSP 2 and HAM 1.
“There was no logic to raise issues such as beef and that firecrackers would be burst in Pakistan if the BJP loses”.
While Modi’s ruling BJP enjoys a majority in the lower house of the national parliament, the opposition has a majority in the upper house at present, hampering efforts to get crucial reform bills approved.
“The prime minister can’t be blamed for the defeat in Bihar”.
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“We failed to estimate the popularity surge of the (rival) alliance…so the size of that coalition arithmetically became more than us”, Mr Jaitley told a press conference after the party’s assessment. “It is clear now that on the national level, people want a powerful opposition”, he added.
