State BJP leaders admitted that the party’s poor performance in the Assembly elections was because of infighting and the resulting confusion.
“The BJP’s defeat was mainly due to the confusion between party leaders and bad campaigns,” said state BJP party chief Prahlad Joshi.
Outgoing chief minister Jagdish Shettar also admitted this when he said that, while the government had taken up a lot of developmental works, there were confusions within the BJP. This contributed to the loss for the party in the state Assembly elections, he added.
Admitting that the Congress’ win was not because of positive vote for it (Congress), but negative vote for the BJP leadership, Joshi said that the party had performed worse than what was expected and termed this an enormous mandate from the people.
Questions with regard to Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa’s loss in his constituency was met with a diplomatic answer from Joshi who said that many leaders and ministers from the party had not won.
The party will function as a constructive opposition, he added. Following the defeat, the party has called a meeting on May 14 with the MLAs and on May 15 with defeated candidates for introspection and brainstorming.