On 11/12/2018 election results of five states were out. BJP lost Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh after 15 years and Rajasthan after five years. After that Nitin Gadkari has been critical of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
“Party leadership should own up to defeat and failures. Nobody is willing to take responsibility of failure, unlike successes.”
“Leadership should have the tendency to own up the defeat and failures. Loyalty of the leadership towards the organization will not be proved till the time it owns up responsibility for the defeat.”
“If I am the party president and my MPs and MLAs are not doing well then who is responsible?”
Three years back in 2015 after defeat in Bihar election, Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha wanted review of the defeat and fix responsibility. Nitin Gadkari and three other former BJP presidents had issued a statement that victory or defeat was collective responsibility as had happened in the past. Now Gadkari makes contrary statements.
Gadkari is a Nagpur resident. RSS had headquarters in Nagpur. Some think Gadkari’s words come from RSS. Mohan Bhagwat had contradicted Modi on Congress-Free India and said that is a political slogan, RSS wants to take all along.
Chief Ministers lead state governments. Credit for victory or blame for defeat should go to them. However party presidents or Prime Ministers take credit when their party wins in a state, so they should be ready to own defeat also.
After Modi became PM, BJP had its share of ups and downs. It had lost in Delhi and Bihar. It had lost Punjab where its ally SAD was senior partner. Losing Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is a major blow to BJP unlike any other.
Lok Sabha elections are due in April and May. If BJP does not get 272 seats there will be challenge to Modi’s leadership. Some regional leaders want a non-BJP, non-Congress Front. Modi can not rely on Shiv Sena. Some partners like Apna Dal are playing truant. BJP has lost recent Lok Sabha by-elections in Uttar Pradesh. Gadkari, with the backing of RSS, seems to challenge Modi.
