JD(U) blames BJP for poll debacle

Indeed, the party's two-day national conference, which concluded here on Sunday, was dominated by the devastating poll defeat. Admitting that there is a change in the situation before and after the elections, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav said the BJP's poll campaign had its impact on his party as well. “The BJP had raised the wrong kind of issues and ignored those that mattered to common folk. As their allies, this certainly hurt us,” Yadav, who is also the convener of NDA, told reporters after his party's national executive meeting.  "There is certainly a change in the mood before and after the polls. We would surely raise the poll debacle with the BJP leadership and would arrive at an understanding,” he said.
Without naming the NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani, Yadav rued: “The BJP could not recreate the magic of the (former Prime Minister) Vajpayee.”  The JD-U leader also questioned why the BJP could not take up issues of the farmer, despite Rajnath Singh being a farmer himself. “Projecting the farmer’s issue could have had an effect, since none of the opposition (Manmohan, Sonia and Rahul) can claim such proximity to farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, JD (U) senior leaders claimed in the meeting that the NDA didn't appear like a cohesive unit during the elections. The party’s state presidents from UP, Bihar and Jharkhand accused BJP of showing a big brotherly attitude towards them.