Advani, Joshi take on Modi, Shah over BJP rout in Bihar

A short while ago, the following response was received from BJP:

BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY

(Central Office) 11, Ashok Road, New Delhi – 110001

Date: November 10, 2015
Statement issued by Shri Rajnath Singh, Shri Venkaiah Naidu and Shri Nitin Gadkari Former Presidents, BJP

We have read the statement issued by some senior Members of the Party. Obviously, all Party members are concerned with the results of the Assembly Elections in Bihar. The Party has won the Lok Sabha Election last year under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi. Thereafter, the Party had success in Assembly Elections of Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir. Recently, we have won the local elections in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andamans, Kerala and Assam. The results of Delhi and Bihar have been adverse against us. The Party’s Parliamentary Board had a detailed discussion yesterday on the results of the Bihar Assembly Elections. The Party will discuss this matter on various other forums including with senior leaders and attempt to overcome the shortcomings that led to the adverse verdict in Bihar. The Party has been very fortunate to have been led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shri L.K. Advani for decades. They had set a healthy precedent of the Party collectively taking up responsibility for victories and defeats. The Party would certainly welcome any guidance and suggestion of our seniors in this regard.

(ER. ARUN KUMAR JAIN)
Office Secretary

Here is the statement put out by L K Advani, M M Joshi, Y Sinha and S Kumar

New Delhi

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]wo days after the BJP suffered a rout in Bihar, party veterans, including L.K. Advani, on Tuesday took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, demanding “a thorough review” of the debacle but said it can’t be done by those who were responsible”.

To say that everyone is responsible for the defeat in Bihar is to ensure that no one is held responsible.”

In a virtual challenge to Modi’s leadership since he led the BJP to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar said the Bihar defeat showed that the BJP had learnt nothing from its crushing defeat by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi in February.
The joint statement, signed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, followed a meeting of the leaders that was also attended by former central minister Arun Shourie, who has publicly blamed Modi, Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the Bihar defeat.
“The result of the Bihar election shows that no lesson was learnt from the fiasco in Delhi,” the hard hitting statement said.
“To say that everyone is responsible for the defeat in Bihar is to ensure that no one is held responsible.”
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]dvani and the other seniors said that a review of the Bihar rout — where the Bharatiya Janata Party won just 53 of the 243 assembly seats — “must not be done by the very persons who have managed and who have been responsible for the campaigning in Bihar”.
In a direct attack on Modi and his confidant Shah, it said “a thorough review must be done of the reasons for the defeat as well as the way the party is being forced to kowtow to a handful and how its consensual character has been destroyed”.
The statement said the principal reason for the party’s defeat in Bihar “is how the party has been emasculated”.
While Advani is credited with building the BJP since it was left with just two Lok Sabha seats in 1984, Joshi – like Advani – has been a former party president. Shanta Kumar is a former Himachal Pradesh chief minister who has been critical of Modi in the past.

Below is the signed letter of Advani, Joshi, Sinha and others…