New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to light this Diwali with a sweet offer of FDI reforms, the older guard of BJP elder statesmen delivered a wet cracker.
In a joint statement, senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sihna and Shanta Kumar delivered a body blow to Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah in the wake of the party’s defeat in the Bihar elections.
The statement spoke of “emasculation” of the party that sought to project a masculine image of power and authority since coming to power last year. The old saffron war-horses, who were marginalised and put into the “Margdarshak Mandal”, timed their blow at a time when Prime Minister Modi and his close aide, the BJP president, were drenched in defeat and looking for a way out to pass the buck.
Late on Tuesday night the BJP issued a statement that the party would “welcome any guidance and suggestions by seniors”.
The veteran leaders launched a frontal attack on Modi-Shah duo (without naming them) for the Bihar fiasco. In a scathing attack, the statement read: “The results of the Bihar election show that no lesson has been learnt from the fiasco in Delhi.”
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