daly news letter from www.zeenews.com

Modi’s remarks, attack on PM led to LS defeat: BJP report

Updated on Friday, August 21, 2009, 00:01 IST Tags:BJP report on election defeat, Varun Gandhi

Zeenews Bureau

Shimla: The BJP on Thursday admitted that hate speeches by Varun Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's sarcastic remarks on the Congress party during the campaign were among the reasons for its humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

However, senior leader Arun Jaitley told the media today that "there is no report" given by Bal Apte, which has already been denied by the party.

"Whether Apte has made any presentation or not will be known tomorrow at the press conference by party President Rajnath Singh," he said when asked about the discussions in the "chintan baithak" that is on here on the issue.

The three-day chintan baithak (introspection meeting) of the party that began Wednesday also discussed threadbare a report of a committee headed by party vice-president Bal Apte, the BJP leader said, wishing anonymity.

The Bal Apte Committee report has also cited the "perceived lack of unity amongst the leaders" and "internal sqabbles" of BJP as being among other causes of the failure of the party to wrest power from UPA.

"Personal attack on Manmohan Singh did not go well with people," the nine-page report on the results has noted.

The observations could be seen as faulting senior BJP leader LK Advani, who led the personal attack on Manmohan Singh and repeatedly termed him as "weak Prime Minister".

"Mid-campaign distractions like projection of Sri Narendra Modi as PM, Varun Gandhi controversy and reported internal squabbles within the party took centre-stage and pushed aside the main campaign," the report notes.

Modi had made fun of the Congress calling it a 'budhiya (aging woman),' while Varun Gandhi's incendiary speeches against the Muslim community sent shock waves across the country.

On BJP's election slogan of 'Mazboot Neta, Nirnayak Sarkar' (strong leader, decisive government) and main issues of internal security and price rise, the report says that there was a "popular perception amongst our activists and supporters that these issues either did not get positioned effectively or there was a mismatch or both to some extent."

The Bal Apte committee was set up after demands from within the party for introspection over the poll debacle.

The report also observes that BJP lacked "leaders of stature and profile", which affected the party's performance in certain states like Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

It has found faults with the process to select candidates, saying it got delayed despite the party starting very early and "was not appropriate" at some places