Members of BJP's Margdarshak Mandal L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and other senior leaders such as Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar delivered a scathing indictment of the current leadership in the BJP, over the failure to fix accountability for the loss in Bihar.
In a joint statement released after a meeting at Mr. Advani's residence in Delhi that included former BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya and Arun Shourie the group said: "No lesson has been learnt from the fiasco in Delhi.To say that everyone is responsible for the defeat in Bihar is to ensure that no one is held responsible.The principal reason for the latest defeat is the way the Party has been emasculated in the last year."
The statement also said that those who are responsible for the defeat cannot be reviewing the reasons for the loss. The statement also said that "the consensual character of the party has been destroyed because the party is being kow tow to a few".
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had, after a meeting of its parliamentary board said that the party took collective responsibility for the loss, and that the total vote transference among the Nitish Kumar led Mahagathbandhan had been underestimated by the NDA, and that was the main reason for the loss. Mr Jaitley had also ruled out the resignation of party chief Amit Shah after the loss.
The statement by party elders however is clearly targeted at those running the affairs of the BJP especially Mr Shah and his rather abrupt style of leadership.
The statement is likely to shake things up in the party, as organisational polls are underway.
