The simmering discontent within the BJP over the poll debacle in Bihar transcended the State's borders to reach Delhi on Tuesday as four veterans attributed the "disastrous showing" to the party being "emasculated in the last one year" and being "forced to kow-tow to a handful".
A day after the BJP Parliamentary Board took "collective responsibility" of the poor showing in Bihar, BJP old guards lK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha in their strongly-worded joint statement maintained, "To say that everyone is responsible for the defeat is to ensure that no one is held responsible. It shows those who would have appropriated credit if the party had won are bent on shrugging off responsibility for the disastrous showing in Bihar."
However, the BJP leadership tried to put the ball back in veterans’ court, saying the "healthy precedent" of collective responsibility for poll victories and defeats was set by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and lK Advani himself. But at the same time, the BJP said it would certainly welcome any guidance and suggestion of "our seniors". The BJP response came by way of a joint statement issued by three Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, all former BJP presidents.
The elders made it clear that accountability for the devastating loss in Bihar Assembly polls has to be fixed. But to do that "the review must not be done by the very persons who have managed and have been responsible for the campaign in Bihar", they asserted.
Though they did not name either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP chief Amit Shah, who spearheaded the Bihar campaign, the intended target of the veterans was more than apparent.
Apparently questioning the Modi-Shah style of functioning, the seniors further said, "The review should cover the way the party is forced to kow-tow to a handful and how its consensual character has been destroyed."
The quartet, two of them being founding members of the BJP, also maintained that the results of the Bihar Assembly elections showed that no lesson has been learnt from the fiasco in Delhi, where the Aam Aadmi Party trounced the BJP by securing 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
Their statement follows voices of dissent coming in from BJP's leaders in Bihar. Many MPs like Shatrughan Sinha, Hukumdev Narayan Singh, RK Singh and Bhola Singh have come out openly airing their discontent over the way the poll campaign was handled, besides the party's failure in reining in the motormouths among others.
According to sources, the feedback on "the grievances" from various quarters in the party was being received by the seniors and they sought to give "a kind of memo" to the party leadership.
Before the statement signed by Yashwant Sinha was released, former union minister Arun Shourie and former RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya were closeted with Joshi at the latter's residence.
Incidentally, both Shourie and Govindacharya have been vocal critics of the Modi brigade. Sinha putting his weight behind the other veterans comes even though his son Jayant is the Minister of State for Finance in the Modi Government.
Two of the top leaders -Advani and Joshi- are members of a "non-functional" Margdarshak Mandal which was formed soon after BJP's victory in lok Sabha poll, last year.
The Mandal of which Prime Minister and Home Minister are also part, has, so far, not held a single meeting giving credence to speculation that it was a way of sidelining the top duo. Sources said, the body has "no validity in the party's constitution," indicating that the incumbent leadership "does not want to broad base" its consultations in the decision making.