Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP president, summoned Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar to Delhi, sources said on Thursday as the ruling party stared at a close fight in the state, contrary to its expectations. The party's Haryana chief Subhash Barala has offered to quit.
Amit Shah cancelled his appointments, including an ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) event that he was to attend, reported news agency IANS.
The BJP struggled to maintain its edge as it hovered around 40 seats in leads from Haryana's 90 seats. The Congress led in 29 seats, and was said to be in talks with Dushyant Chautala, the leader of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), to explore the possibility of forming government.
Many ministers of the BJP were trailing and the party was far from the "Mission 75" target it had set.
"We will try to introspect why we fell short of the target we had set for ourselves," BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told NDTV.
For the BJP, the trends in Haryana would be particularly upsetting, given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi upped his campaign in the state in the last few weeks before polling on Monday.
The PM addressed seven rallies in Haryana and concentrated on areas dominated by Jats, who are a sizeable chunk of votes in the state.
Sources say the BJP is trying to reach out to Dushyant Chautala using its ally Akali Dal, whose chief Parkash Singh Badal had once tried to cobble an alliance of the BJP, Akali Dal and JJP.
Mr Badal has been tasked with negotiating with Mr Chautala, sources say.
"These are just leads...the results will take time. The picture will be clearer later," said Naveen Kumar, BJP spokesperson.
"If not this time, we will achieve 'Mission 75' in 2024," he added.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar of the BJP asserted that his party would win not just Maharashtra and Haryana but also Jharkhand and Delhi next year.
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