Advani, Joshi take on Modi, Amit Shah

BJP veterans including L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah over the party's rout in the Bihar elections.

"The result of the Bihar election show that no lesson was learnt from the fiasco in Delhi," a joint statement put out by Advani, Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha said, referring to the way the Aam Aadmi Party worsted the BJP in February.

"To say that everyone is responsible for the defeat in Bihar is to ensure that no one is held responsible," the hard hitting statement said.

Advani and the others said that a review of the Bihar debacle -- where the Bharatiya Janata Party won just 53 of the 243 assembly seats -- "must not be done by the very persons who have managed and who have been responsible for the campaigning in Bihar.

"A thorough review must be done of the reasons for the defeat as well as the way the party is being forced to kowtow to a handful and how its consensual character has been destroyed."