BJP defeat due to loose talkers: Jaitley

The joint statement, signed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, followed a meeting of the leaders that was also attended by former central minister Arun Shourie, who has publicly blamed Modi, Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the Bihar defeat.

“The result of the Bihar election shows that no lesson was learnt from the fiasco in Delhi”, the hard hitting statement said.

Jaitley said his party respects the people’s mandate in Bihar and promised to play the role of a constructive opposition to enable the new government fulfil people’s aspirations.

“I have told party chief Shah to initiate stringent action against those making irresponsible statements and causing damage to the party’s image, Gadkari said”.

“It shows that those who would have appropriated credit if the party had won are bent on shrugging off responsibility for the disastrous showing in Bihar”, it said, in a clear reference to Modi and Shah who were the BJP’s faces vis-a-vis the Grand Alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Dubbing the BJP as a “communal party”, Gogoi said, it would not be able to make any impact in the state.

Explaining the initial assessment for the drubbing, Jaitley said, “During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP got a 38.8 per cent vote share, which dipped to 34.1 per cent. The three parties, RJD, JD(U) and Congress, which fought separately then, had shared 45.3 per cent between them”.

While the ruling NDA managed to get 58 seats (BJP 53) in the 243-member Bihar assembly, Mahagathbandhan got 178 seats.

He further said that the vote share of BJP has not come down and the victory of the Mahaghatbandhan was on account of different opposition forces coming together.

He has not met party president Sonia Gandhi, even though Congress successfully blocked legislation during the last parliamentary session and frustrated several of Modi’s key reforms.

But voices of discontent have been steadily mounting in the BJP since the Bihar results came out on Sunday.

Singh, a former BJP chief, also ruled out the possibility of party chief Amit Shah being removed over the Bihar debacle. We had won elections in the past, we had lost elections in the past.

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.

Seats in the upper house are allocated according to political parties’ strength in India’s state assemblies.

Once rolled out, it will subsume various levies like excise, service tax, sales tax, octroi, etc, and ensure a single indirect tax regime for the entire country Stating that GST roll out is a “matter of time, Jaitley said the “obstructionist” position of the Congress would not continue for long as the country’s mood is reform oriented”.