BJP Parliamentary Party Chief L K Advani, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and party leaders Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Ananth Kumar, who had been sent by the central leadership as an observer for the polls and to work towards getting the required votes, held a meeting to look into the reasons for the defeat.
The party handled the elections so badly that even the two independent MLAs Chamra Linda and Bidesh Singh, who support the BJP-JMM coalition government in Jharkhand, did not vote for Ahluwalia.
Rubbing salt to its wounds, these two as well as the other five independent MLAs had voted for Congress candidate Pradip Kumar Balmuchu.
After the meeting, Sinha said perhaps there was a need to put in more effort.
Internal differences between the central leaders is said to be the prime reason for Ahluwalia's defeat.
Party leaders feel Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda was more concerned about not antagonising ally JMM during this exercise as this could endanger his government.
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Others felt the central leaders, including party president Nitin Gadkari, did not evince much interest in ensuring that the numbers were on its side due to internal squabbles.
The total strength of the JMM-BJP ruling alliance, which also has AJSU and JD(U) as partners, in Jharkhand is 45. While JMM candidate Sanjeev Kumar managed the 23 votes required to win a seat, Ahluwalia could win only 20 votes. (MORE)