New Delhi: Disgruntled over Bharatiya Janata Party's disastrous poll results in Bihar assembly elections on Sunday, section of party leaders spewed venom against the central leadership and held them responsible for making a way for the Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congeress Mahaghatbandan (grand alliance) to form the government in the state.
Already some Bihar leaders, including BJP MP from Madhubani Hukumdev Narayan Yadav have said that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota comments cost the party. He also cautioned the party leaders from making objectionable comment, which went against the party's poll strategy in the state.
"RSS statement was wrongly timed and because of this statement backward class thought their rights would be taken away and some upper class leader would be the Chief Minister. They aggressively voted against us cause of this statement and Lalu and Nitish capitalized on this. The backward class thought jobs will taken away, we could not defend it much. Communalism should be avoided. Polarizing electorate caused us a lot. There is no big state leader in the state and we need to strengthen our local leadership," said Yadav.
There is also a feeling that the decision of not projecting a chief ministerial face gave Nitish Kumar an advantage. Meanwhile, BJP's Parliamentary Board, its top decision-making body, will meet on Monday evening to analyse its rout in Bihar assembly polls, a second humiliating defeat in a row for the party after Delhi assembly election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the meet in which almost all top party leaders, including party President Amit Shah, will be present.
Some BJP leaders felt that the "social combination" of the winning grand alliance could have caused NDA's defeat. Senior party leader and Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha termed the grand alliance's win as "victory of democracy" and criticised top party leaders.
"BJP lost the elections very badly. Every big leader and minister campaigned for BJP in the state. We ignored the writing on the wall. I had every intention and desire to work for the party and had given dates to the party but they did not want me to work. Our Prime Minister is very capable but wrong feedback was given to the him, especially from local Bihar leaders," said Sinha.
While another party leader RK Singh from Bihar criticised the party's ticket distribution before the polls and he even refrained from casting his vote.
Ahead of the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, party president Amit Shah also met Mohan Bhagwat.
Former Union Minister Arun Shourie opined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should be held accountable for BJP's loss in Bihar elections and predicted that the "silent non-cooperation movement" in the party against the leadership will now deepen.
He said a "Modi-centric" campaign "lacked credibility" because of the unkept promises of the past and blamed BJP's "divisive tactics" for the drubbing.
The BJP and its allies were left with only 58 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly as the rival 'Grand Alliance' led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won 178 seats, a two-thirds majority.
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