Amit Shah reportedly told Mohan Bhagwat that his quota remarks were not the reason behind the polarisation of backward votes in Bihar.
The BJP's preliminary assessment of Bihar election attributes the loss to its failure to present a credible backward leader to Bihar voters -- despite the fact that the party had projected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a leader of the backward castes.
The assessment was conveyed by BJP president Amit Shah to Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- the BJP's ideological mentor.
Sources in the BJP said during the half-hour meeting, Mr Shah told Mr Bhagwat that while the party failed to project a backward leader, the Grand Alliance led by Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar managed to keep backward caste voters engaged.
"The BJP feels that for backward classes in Bihar, the Nitish-Lalu duo remain the favourite," said a senior RSS leader. "The Grand Alliance managed to convert the Bihar contest into a caste battle."
Sections within the BJP feel Mr Bhagwat's quota remarks ahead of the elections triggered a polarisation of backward and EBC voters. Today, BJP lawmaker Hukumdev Narayan endorsed it.
"People in Bihar have to struggle against social oppression and they have a history of fighting it. Mr Bhagwat's comments shook the voters," he said.
According to sources, Mr Shah told Mr Bhagwat otherwise. "He told Mr Bhagwat that his quota remarks were not the reason behind the polarisation," the RSS leader said.
While the BJP and RSS will hold a detailed postmortem session in the next few days, the BJP has already started discussing its crushing defeat.
Led by the Prime Minister, 12 top leaders of the party - including the party chief, senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh - discussed the matter today.
A member of the parliamentary board told NDTV the meeting was to consider course correction and introspect on removing the deficiencies in its electoral machinery.
There was no confirmation on whether the meet will consider action against leaders who made inflammatory remarks during the polls on issues like Dadri lynching, Dalit killings and cow slaughter.
Another senior leader, however, indicated that Bihar lawmakers Shatrughan Sinha and RK Singh may be taken to task. "The party may consider serving showcause notices before announcing punitive action, which could include temporary suspension," he said.