PM Modi responsible for Bihar defeat: BJP MP

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to light this Diwali with a sweet offer of FDI reforms, the older guard of BJP elder statesmen delivered a wet cracker.

Attempting to downplay its debacle in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday slammed the barrage of attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted that he still remained the “most popular” leader in the country.

BJP’s big setback in Bihar elections could be a “stumbling block” to the central government’s reform agenda, global giant Barclays said on November 8, 2015.

The rise of Shiv Sena and extremist groups has influenced the people of Bihar to vote for JDU and alliance in current elections, he remarked.

Stating that the GST rollout is a “matter of time”, Jaitley said the “obstructionist” position of the Congress will not continue for long as the country’s mood is reform-oriented. “The fact that Modi led the campaign in Bihar, the loss will be considered a personal defeat for the prime minister”.

The BJP response came by way of a joint statement issued by three Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, all former BJP Presidents.

How do other BJP leaders assess the defeat?

BJP’s MP Chandan Mitra in his column wrote: “It seems that the low-key GA (grand alliance) campaign and its decision to project soft-spoken Nitish Kumar as chief ministerial candidate did the trick, with voters rejecting the high-pitched BJP campaign crafted by party president Amit Shah”.

There was no formal reaction from the party to the old guard, who enjoyed senior posts before Modi took the national stage. Of course, PM Modi has run similar campaigns in Gujarat, where also he brought in Pakistan into the state elections.

In contrast to what most exit polls had said, the Grand Alliance of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress won a whopping 178 of the 243 seats, leaving the BJP – which wanted to oust Nitish Kumar – and its allies with just 58 seats.

The BJP’s failure to rein in their leaders from making inflammatory comments on the unfortunate Dadri lynching incident nor taking action on them, was an ominous indication for them in the Bihar polls. “Our commitment is the states which need to develop more we have to help them more”, Jaitley said.

Working assiduously behind the scene, they crafted a strategy where Kumar matched Modi’s each trenchant criticism with equally sharp retort.