BJP lost where Modi addressed rallies

Coming out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Naidu and Gadkari said the party won the Lok Sabha elections past year under Modi’s leadership.

While BJP’s the crushing defeat in Bihar elections has bolstered concerns that the government would struggle to pass key policy reforms, all may not be lost for the ruling party.

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.

He ruled out the possibility of Shah quitting his post following the debacle. The Grand Alliance routed the BJP in assembly elections, the results of which were announced on Sunday.

The statement said the principal reason for the party’s defeat in Bihar “is how the party has been emasculated”.

The two towering politicians of the eastern state of Bihar, having put aside their differences to form a “grand alliance” with a bit of help from the Congress party, walloped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Narendra Modi, the prime minister. “It should not be interpreted as a mandate to obstruct parliament”, Venkaiah Naidu told reporters in New DelhiFitch Ratings agency director, Thomas Rookmaaker, said investors were unlikely to be deterred by the defeat, and expected the government to move ahead with making India easier place to do business. In the fifth and last phase, the BJP inserted advertisements in local dailies about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s silence on remarks on beef eating in an apparent effort at polarisation.

Party sources added that it was customary for top leaders to meet the RSS chief whenever he spends time in the national capital but the meeting has assumed significance due to Bihar results. Though it was earlier conceived that there would be a good battle between the major contending parties BJP and Grand Alliance while it all proved to be a one-sided victory of the regional political organizations winning the hearts of Bihar people.

Jay Shankar, Chief India Economist and Director, Religare Capital Markets, based on an analysis, feels that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP, is unlikely to gain even a simple majority in the Upper House until 2018, assuming that they do well in the state assembly elections wherever they are traditionally strong. So this loss does not reflect whatever the Modi government is doing.

He opined his desire that following the results and consequences of Bihar state election, the union government would turn back from indulging into the issues of state.

“Thereafter, the party had success in assembly elections of Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir”. But there are several more state elections in 2016, so we can only wait and see. Both backward caste leaders have made popular visits to Pakistan, and the BJP targeted them for this.

Asked about the implications of the loss for the party and the government, he said: “The silent non-cooperation movement against them (Modi, Shah, Jaitley) will deepen”.