JOIN USAt a time when BJP veterans are demanding introspection on Bihar poll defeat to fix responsibility, NDA allies will hold a discussion on their second electoral rout after Delhi, once the internal squabbling dies down.
A senior BJP leader said, informally, they have received feedback from three NDA allies – Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Hindustan Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-Secular) on their poor performance. Of the 58 seats won by the NDA, the three coalition partners got merely five, despite contesting in 80 out of 243 constituencies. The LJP and RLSP managed two seats each and HAM (Secular) survived with its founder and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi barely winning Imamganj, one of the two constituencies he fought from.
Top BJP sources said a general secretary-level leader had held interactions with individual NDA partners but a structured meeting would take place after “temperatures cool down”, hinting at the rumblings within the party.
A section lead by patriarch L K Advani had refused to accept the assessment that caste consolidation in favour of the Grand Alliance had triggered the political avalanche of sorts. Advani, M M Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha’s attacks were aimed at the Modi-Shah leadership.