Arun Jaitley's Assessment Of Why BJP Was Crushed In Bihar

New Delhi: BJP leaders who made comments that "deflected from our main theme of development" contributed to the party's humiliating defeat in Bihar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said to NDTV today. Mr Jaitley said, "I did try to intervene on several occasions and correct that narrative. But... the camera has a special fondness for those who are capable of spoiling that narrative."

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's energetic and extensive campaigning for his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party was crushed in Bihar by the partnership between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav, who won 178 of the state's 243 seats. The BJP accrued 53.

Analysts and critics say the loss is a blow to PM Modi's appeal as an invincible vote-winner after he stormed to power in last year's general election with the biggest mandate in 30 years. Complaints have also been mounting about his failure to nail down major reforms to boost investment and help create jobs for tens of millions of young people.

Galvanised opposition parties are now expected to step up efforts to derail his government's plans to push promised economic reforms through Parliament. Among them is the national Goods and Services Tax or GST, which aims at combining the country into a unified marketplace by removing multiple levies.  

The GST was passed by the lower house or Lok Sabha, where the government is in a massive majority, but it was stalled by the opposition in the Upper House or Rajya Sabha, where the opposition is dominant. "I think GST will get through. It's only a matter of time. Therefore, for the Congress also to indefinitely assume an obstructionist indefinitely may not be so possible," Mr Jaitley said, vowing to push ahead with reforms and allay fears of a slowdown in the government's agenda.

The stock exchange fell as much as 2.3 per cent in Monday's morning session on the BJP's defeat before recovering some losses.

Mr Modi turned the month-long Bihar election into a test of his popularity, fronting some 30 rallies during the campaign and promising thousands of crores in financial schemes and investment for one of the country's most impoverished states.  

"I don't think it was a mistake at all" for the Prime Minister to be the face of the campaign, said Mr Jaitley, rebutting those who said the BJP turned the Bihar contest into a prestige battle that has severely dented the PM.