RSS, BJP in Bihar fight
Sangh says party didn’t clarify Bhagwat remark; BJP MP attacks RSS
A day after Bihar gave a third consecutive term to Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister and rejected the BJP-led NDA, RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat told BJP president Amit Shah that the party had failed to properly explain the Sangh's view on reservations to the voters. Mr Bhagwat's remarks were perceived as anti-reservations and were used by the Opposition to target the NDA.
The BJP was also told that over-confidence was one of the key reasons for its drubbing in the high-stakes battle. Mr Shah had gone to meet the RSS chief, who has been camping in New Delhi for the past week.
The BJP, whose parliamentary board met on Monday to review its debacle in Bihar, has ruled out holding anyone responsible for the rout. It rejected the view that the remarks by Mr Bhagwat had any impact on the elections.
Rejecting the contention that the results should be seen as a referendum on the Modi government, the BJP said referendum was a word that belonged in “journalistic parlance” and that all elections were fought on different issues.
Elsewhere, there were discordant notes. Party MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said Mr Bhagwat’s quota comments had “agitated” the backward castes, who rallied around the Grand Alliance BJP ally Jitan Ram Manjhi blamed the defeat on Mr Bhagwat’s remark, and Mr Shah’s “crackers in Pakistan” attack for the defeat.
In the almost hour-long meeting between the BJP and the RSS, sources said Mr Amit Shah briefed Mr Mohan Bhagwat on why the party lost the polls. After the results were out on Sunday, the BJP had vehemently denied that Mr Bhagwat’s reservation comments had had any impact on the poll outcome.
Mr Bhagwat also met President Pranab Mukherjee, in what was termed a “courtesy call”, according to the President’s official Twitter handle. But sources said Mr Bhagwat had informally discussed with the President some issues he highlighted in his Dasara address during their half-hour meeting. Sources said this meeting had been fixed around Dasara.
The BJP, whose parliamentary board met to review the defeat, ruled out holding anyone responsible for the rout in Bihar. The party also rejected the criticism even from within that Mr Bhagwat’s reservation remarks were one of the key reasons for the defeat.
The party admitted that the size of the “social arithmetic” put together by the Opposition was bigger than the NDA and acknowledged that its assessment that vote transferability among JD(U), RJD and Congress would not happen had proved “incorrect”.