After Advani-Joshi take on Modi, BJP welcomes 'guidance from seniors'

The BJP on Tuesday said it was "fortunate" to have been led by leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani for decades, and welcomed any guidance and suggestion from the party's "seniors" on victories and defeats.

In a statement issued by former BJP presidents Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, the party said: "We have read the statement issued by some senior members of the party. Obviously, all party members are concerned with the results of the assembly elections in Bihar."

Coming out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Naidu and Gadkari said the party won the Lok Sabha elections last year under Modi's leadership.

"Thereafter, the party had success in assembly elections of Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir. Recently, we won the local elections in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andamans, Kerala and Assam."

Stating that the "results of Delhi and Bihar have been adverse", the BJP said its parliamentary board had a detailed discussion on Monday on the Bihar results.

"The party will discuss this matter on various other forums including with senior leaders and attempt to overcome the shortcomings that led to the adverse verdict in Bihar," it said.

Stating that the Party "has been very fortunate" to have been led by Vajpayee and Advani for decades, it said "they had set a healthy precedent of the party collectively taking up responsibility for victories and defeats".

"The party would certainly welcome any guidance and suggestion of our seniors in this regard," the statement said.

In a virtual challenge to Modi's leadership who became the prime minister in May 2014, former party presidents Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, former union minister Yashwant Sinha and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar Advani on Tuesday took on the prime minister and BJP president Amit Shah and demanded "a thorough review" of the Bihar debacle.

They said the Bihar defeat showed that the BJP had learnt nothing from its crushing defeat by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi in February.