Lucknow, May 17: Days after the BJP’s electoral rout in Uttar Pradesh, state unit leaders are engaged in a blame game that has only further split the party rank and file.

State BJP chief Vinay Katiyar, who himself lost in Kheri to his Samajwadi Party rival, had offered to resign following the debacle. But he withdrew his resignation letter after meeting Pramod Mahajan, the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, who said the rout was a “collective responsibility”.

Speaking to the media today, Katiyar blamed party workers for the Lok Sabha loss. “The failure of party candidates to win was due to inactivity of the district level party workers,” he said.

A survey of the defeat has not been completed, but the state chief said an initial assessment held that people did not turn out to vote because of the heat and party workers remained indoors for the same reason.

But Katiyar’s argument was rejected by former BJP state chief Om Prakash Singh.

“It is easy to blame the party workers but the state leaders are forgetting to take a look at their own mirror to study their own image. They should take some responsibility for this,” he said.

The party has slumped to its worst-ever showing in the heartland state, winning a mere 11 seats, down 16 from 1999. The BJP won 58 seats from Uttar Pradesh the year before that and was aiming for 50 seats this time.

The contradictory statements issued by Katiyar and Singh are just the tip of the iceberg; anger is brewing among the party rank and file over the leaders’ failure to arrive at a winning formula, BJP sources said.

They confirmed that ego clashes among its top leaders had contributed to the defeat.

A senior leader said there was pressure from some leaders not to issue tickets to the sitting MPs in Bahraich and Fatehpur. Despite this, they were renominated and lost.

“The party district leaders were divided and that was one reason why the party lost in eastern UP’s 11 seats. Part of the area is known as Ayodhya movement’s command area. Despite that the party lost,” a source said.

He pointed out that Katiyar himself had to shift to Kheri due to the presence of rebel Lallu Singh in Faizabad. Lallu eventually joined the state unit chief on the losing side.

Party sources said district-level leaders had not been taken into confidence and ended up sitting idly as they were not pressed into service.

“At one point of time in a city like Ayodhya, at least four small planes and helicopters landed for campaign and flew off after that was over. The local level party leaders were left gaping at their exalted status,” a Faizabad-based senior BJP leader said.

After taking stock in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh leaders are expected to have a meeting here next week to assess why the party lost so badly.