The Times said citing a few BJP leaders that Modi “had erred in the closing weeks of the Bihar campaign by elevating hard-right appeals to Hindu nationalism over his traditional unifying message of vikas, or development, for all Indians”.
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Sunday’s loss in Bihar, India’s third most populous and poorest state, comes after a similar defeat in Delhi and is the most significant setback for Modi since he won a crushing victory in a general election past year.
In the 2010 assembly polls, the BJP had won 91 out of 102 seats it contested with a strike rate of almost 90 percent. Advani had strongly resisted the naming of Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in 2013.
Asked about controversial statements made by a few of the party leaders to whip up communal tension, Singh said “if there is any secular party in the country, it is BJP”. “So, we were expecting this someday”, he said.
Govindacharya also stressed that communication and trust within the party needs to be improved.
Amid the ongoing verbal volleys within the BJP post the Bihar debacle, the Congress on Wednesday said the “mook-darshak mandal” (silent board), which has been sidelined by the saffron party, has finally made a decision to assert itself.
Gadkari, a former BJP chief and an Advani acolyte till recently, reminded the patriarch that the BJP had assumed “collective responsibility” earlier too when it lost elections under “Advaniji”. Nevertheless, Singh is the first leader to assault Shah and Modi.
The Begusarai MP said the rampant use of “unparliamentary language” by Modi and other party leaders during the election campaign harmed the BJP, leading to its defeat.
Nitish Kumar will take the oath as chief minister of Bihar on November 20.
Modi and a dozen senior party colleagues analyzed the reasons for the Bihar defeat in a meeting, but did not point the finger at anyone in particular for the loss.
“Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have bulldozed it. Even Hitler had captured his party and then on the government”.
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Adding his bit to the revolt, former union minister and a senior leader from Bihar, C P Thakur, also attacked the leadership, saying after serving the party for so long, he was pained to see that the relationship between the central leadership and the grassroots workers now has become one of master and a servant. “He has tolerated hateful and insensitive remarks by his ministers”, the Times said. But numerous people who contributed to a campaign that literally rode on crores of rupees were loyal to Modi and not to the BJP per se. They are upset with what they – and many in the BJP and government – believe is their centralised, take-no-prisoners style of working. Amit Shah, who has never headed a state, is now head of the party.
