What Modi can learn from Bihar loss

The results are being seen as personal setbacks to Mr. Modi, who had campaigned extensively in Bihar and addressed more than 30 election rallies, and for Mr. Shah, who had fashioned the party’s strategy for the elections.

“The result of the Bihar election shows that no lesson was learnt from the fiasco in Delhi”, the statement said. Advani had strongly resisted the naming of Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in 2013. “Advani and Joshi formed the triumvirate of BJP along with A B Vajpayee and if they are saying something about the party, it is a serious matter”, he said.

“But this is the internal matter of the BJP and we don’t have anything to say on this”, he added.

Singh said that BJP will analyse the reasons for the party not having fared well when there was a direct fight with any party or combination and would try to improve the position. Modi’s initial success in several states and the national election proved that his party had banked on the right leader especially since he took the Congress to its political nadir.

A statement issued late Tuesday by four former ministers indirectly accused Modi and party President Amit Shah of concentrating too much power in their hands.

“The Party has won the Lok Sabha Election a year ago under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi”.

Advani and three other BJP veterans have issued a strong statement on the party’s defeat in Bihar, demanding a thorough review and criticising its stand on the debacle.

Such rhetoric also did not work with voters as there was a failure of the BJP’s “False Flag” operations in Bihar, a term used to describe operations meant to deceive in such a way that it appears they were carried out by entities or groups other than those who actually planned and executed them.

“The prime minister fell to Lalu’s googly and left his ‘Sabka saath sabka Vikas (Development for all)’ slogan”, he said.

“When the election comes, we will decide”.

“The prime minister can’t be blamed for the defeat in Bihar”. Singh also said that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on quota made matters worse for the party.

“The letter penned by BJP party elders reflects what many within the BJP have said in private, but were unwilling to articulate publicly”, said Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie Endowment for global Peace.

The water was muddied further by a senior RSS pracharak from Gujarat who said that non-admission of mistakes due to “arrogance” causes more damage than admitting to shortcomings and atoning for them. And the president of the B.J.P., Amit Shah, one of Modi’s closest advisers, told voters that a victory for the alliance would be celebrated in Pakistan…