Outside the BJP office in Delhi. (Press Trust of India)
The BJP is yet to finalise when its top decision-making body, the parliamentary board, will meet to discuss the Bihar debacle. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah spearheading the campaign, the exercise - usually aimed at fixing accountability - will have to wait, party sources said.
Earlier today, Mr Shah met senior ministers and leaders like Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dharmendra Pradhan and also JP Nadda, who camped in Bihar for almost 45 days to oversee the election campaign. BJP organisational secretary Ram Lal and General Secretary Ram Madhav too attended the meet.
A preliminary analysis of the loss was carried out at the meeting, said sources.
"A quick study shows the rival combine managed to turn the battle into an upper caste vs lower caste battle, which meant the backward castes and the Extremely Backward Castes the BJP was eyeing, voted for the Grand Alliance," a leader told NDTV.
A postmortem is critical for the BJP and the NDA govt. The Bihar loss is expected to impact both the government's policies and the BJP's politics.
Last week, finance minister Arun Jaitley had expressed hope that the passing the crucial GST bill was just a matter of time. But that's going to change. The emboldened opposition will unite on the issue of intolerance, ensuring disruptions in the coming winter session of Parliament and blocking legislations.
Indication of this came from Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram. "PM Modi has just 2 to 3 weeks left for course correction. The Congress has narrowed its demands on GST to just 3 from earlier 7," he told NDTV.
The Bihar loss has dashed the BJP's hopes of increasing its tally in Rajya Sabha, where the NDA has less than 60 lawmakers in a House of 250. Bihar will send 10 lawmakers to Rajya Sabha between 2016 and 2018.
The loss is also expected to place a question mark on PM Modi's capability to lead the party in states where the BJP faces structured alliances. He was the face of the NDA's campaign and had addressed nearly 30 rallies in Bihar.
The defeat also challenges Mr Shah's reputation as a master strategist, built after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Also, the RSS, which had allowed the Modi-Shah duo functional autonomy, will "review" the situation, a senior leader said.
Mr Ram Madhav, who is on deputation from the RSS to create better links between the BJP and its ideological mentor, said, "Amit Shah will continue as the BJP president." Mr Shah's term as president ends in December.