Disgruntled BJP veterans yet to hear from party

The alliance compiled a video, sung more in sorrow than in anger to a catchy tune, that asks: “Where has he vanished, he who said good days would come with his election, promised to repatriate billions in illicit money stashed in foreign havens?”

Gadkari said BJP leadership was discussing with the veterans the issues raised by them.

The crushing defeat in Bihar assembly polls has given an opportunity to the sulking leaders both inside and outside BJP to take potshot against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

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.

As BJP grappled with the dissent by four party veterans, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today suggested that they should have raised their views at a party forum rather than going public. “A assessment must be manufactured from the election debacle”. In fact, the joke doing the rounds while the Bihar campaigning was on was that Modi would be back in the state next year for campaigning in village council elections! “The drubbing in Bihar significantly weakens the BJP’s position at the centre”. This alliance comprised three odd bedfellows: the incumbent chief minister Nitish Kumar, his onetime enemy (and former chief minister) Lalu Prasad Yadav, and the remains of the once-dominant Indian National Congress party. On the domestic front, however, Modi’s leadership appears to be on the wane. They (party veterans) have the moral authority and are backed by a large section of the party who are not getting anything in this present regime. Sushil Modi was carefully choosing his words to protect the prime minister, but many other state party seniors were pointing an accusing finger at Narendra Modi.

No one should assume that just because Shah is the party president, he was also the captain of the BJP in the Bihar assembly polls.

He said the party not projecting a local leader against Nitish Kumar during the Bihar elections led to its dismal performance.

“At the moment, it is not a challenge to Modi’s leadership but it can turn into one because it is the expression of many voices”. A party functionary said that the veterans are keenly observing all the developments.

State elections decide who controls the upper house of India’s Parliament. “The results of the elections show that no lesson has been learnt, from the fiasco in Delhi”. It has been accused of polarising voters along religious lines to boost Hindu support. Mr Modi’s supporters had thought his triumph in last year’s general election would usher in an era of BJP dominance at state level. When BJP had won Bihar in 2005 and 2010, did that have an impact on Bengal? For the JD(U), which contested alone in 2014, its CVS was merely 16.2 per cent, but this jumped to 40.12 per cent in 2015.