“The Congress on Wednesday backed the BJP veterans” criticism of the party’s top brass for the crushing defeat in Bihar and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take responsibility for the same.
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A statement by Modi’s supporters said that the party would welcome any guidance of the senior leaders.
The BJP started the year with the disastrous Delhi elections, where they won just three of the 70 seats.
But Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said Modi can not be blamed for BJP’s rout in Bihar assembly elections and dismissed the view that the party had become arrogant.
Indian shares, bonds and the rupee fell to six-week lows as investors who had backed Mr Modi fretted that he would struggle to push economic reforms through Parliament against an emboldened opposition. This may have been Modi’s last chance to win a state election before the spring of 2017.
The loss in India’s third most populous state was a major setback for Mr Modi, who had campaigned extensively there. In recent months, at least 50 national award-winning literary figures have returned their awards to protest what they call increasing “intolerance” against diversity in the country. Most of the upper caste candidates of BJP allies Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), and Hindustani Awam Morch (HAM) were defeated.
“We are afraid to take a political stand, no matter what the issue is”, he added.
A few observers believe too much was being read into state-level elections.
With 75 seats up for grabs in 2016 the party may be able to improve its tally by 14-15 seats as Congress is expected to lose 8-9 helping it to clear passage for GST legislation. One banned poster showed a young Hindu woman embracing a garlanded cow, an animal sacred to Hindus. It also won a majority of the seats where its vice president Rahul Gandhi spoke at election meetings.
The people of Bihar imposed their faith in Nitish Kumar yet again, giving him fifth innings as the Chief Minister. “The campaign should have been about Bihar’s backwardness and its development but we lost our way and fell into a ditch”.
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“Life goes on. Choro kal ki baatein Kal ki baat puraani naye dhang se likhenge hum mil kar nayi kahani, hum Hindustani Jai Bihar, Jai Bharat”, he said in another tweet.
