New Delhi, June 20: In a dramatic turnaround of events, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Saturday accepted responsibility for the party’s debacle in Lok Sabha polls.
Rajnath took the blame at the two-day BJP national executive meet, which began here today to discuss the causes of the defeat and ways to revive the party. This is the first major gathering of the party leader to discuss the electoral failure.
In his address to the national executive of the party amid demands for introspection over the debacle and fixing of responsibility, Singh said “success is a collective credit and failure is a collective responsibility.
For quite some time candidates in the party have been demanding explanation for the massive defeat it suffered in the 2009 General Elections.
Refuting media reports of parting ways with the Hindutva ideology, Rajnath said that BJP will continue to carry its Hindutva ideology as it is eternal, liberal and tolerant.
Commenting on the relations with the RSS, the party president said that BJP will persistently maintain good relations with parent organisation as it has done in the past.
“We can’t hold one person accountable for failure and the review of the defeat is an ongoing process. BJP believes in collective success and collective failure,” Singh said in his inaugural address to the meet.
Singh further stated that the poll outcome showed that the country was proceeding towards a bi-polar polity and defended the issues of Hindutva raised in the election campaign.
“We need to articulate (Hindutva) in the contemporary idiom,” party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, quoting Singh as saying in the meeting.
“We do not regret the issues we have raised. These issues, whether communal reservation, communal budgeting or soft approach to terrorism, were all in national interest,” Singh said.
Rajnath Singh also sent out a strong message to the party cadre to maintain strict discipline and desist from discussing internal matters outside the party fora.
Asked about a feeling in the party that Varun Gandhi’s hate speeches cost the party in the elections, Prasad said BJP believed in the ideology propounded by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who had set the principle of “justice to all and appeasement to none”.
Noting that right wing space has never been vacated in the country, the BJP President said, “in ushering a change, the politics of right has always played a very crucial role.”
On the right wing space, Singh said BJP must be seen in contrast with the Congress and “any confusion will be politically detrimental”.
Singh has asked the party colleagues to give their suggestions in writing which will be discussed threadbare in the chintan baithak (brain storming session) of the BJP which will be held soon.
On Friday, senior leader Arun Shourie demanded an open discussion on the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle that has turned the party into a badly divided house.
In a letter to Rajnath Singh, Shourie demanded a serious debate in the BJP national executive meet over the party’s electoral debacle. The letter said that conspirators were taking over the party.
The senior BJP leader is also believed to have raised questions about accountability in the party and the decision-making structure.
He also wanted circulation of letters written by Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh in the wake of the election defeat for discussion by members of the national executive.
Jaswant Singh and Sinha had earlier written letters to Rajnath Singh demanding an open discussion on the party’s poll defeat. Sinha had even resigned from all party posts.
The party also discusscussed election strategy for the upcoming Assembly Elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Noting that right wing space has never been vacated in the country, the BJP President said, “in ushering a change, the politics of right has always played a very crucial role.”
On the right wing space, Singh said BJP must be seen in contrast with the Congress and “any confusion will be politically detrimental”.
Singh has asked the party colleagues to give their suggestions in writing which will be discussed threadbare in the chintan baithak (brain storming session) of the BJP which will be held soon.
On Friday, senior leader Arun Shourie demanded an open discussion on the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle that has turned the party into a badly divided house.
In a letter to Rajnath Singh, Shourie demanded a serious debate in the BJP national executive meet over the party’s electoral debacle. The letter said that conspirators were taking over the party.
The senior BJP leader is also believed to have raised questions about accountability in the party and the decision-making structure.
He also wanted circulation of letters written by Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh in the wake of the election defeat for discussion by members of the national executive.
Jaswant Singh and Sinha had earlier written letters to Rajnath Singh demanding an open discussion on the party’s poll defeat. Sinha had even resigned from all party posts.
The party also discusscussed election strategy for the upcoming Assembly Elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.
-Agencies