Jitan Ram Manjhi lashed out at the RSS a day after the NDA's drubbing and blamed Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's "review reservation" call for the devastating election defeat.
The Sangh chief drew criticism from Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav too, who said: "The intervention of organisations like RSS in politics is not right."
Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular - the party floated by former chief minister Manjhi - was among the NDA partners but the ties have started to unravel after the results. Manjhi said the timing of Bhagwat's statement was wrong.
His party contested from 21 seats and the only constituency it won was Manjhi's Imamganj seat. Manjhi failed to even retain his Makhdumpur seat. The HAMS president said apart from Bhagwat statement, dal, Dadri and Dalit were the reasons for the NDA's failure to counter the Grand Alliance. He said: "The BJP's failure to project any chief ministerial candidate was also a reason for the NDA debacle." He added: "The voters found a vacuum in the chief ministerial candidate in the NDA camp who could stand against Nitish Kumar."
Criticism for Bhagwat came from the opponent section too.
Congratulating the people of Bihar for defeating communalism, Pappu wrote on Facebook: "Though those who played the caste card appear to have won, the people of Bihar have rejected the communalism card. PM Modi paid the price for deviating from his agenda of development. PM Narendra Modi must get rid of elements like Sakshi Maharaj and Yogi Adityanath."
As censure flies in and pre-poll pacts start to fall through, all is not well inside the Bihar BJP camp too.
Senior state leaders expressed their resentment with the central and Bihar leadership.
Madhubani MP Hukmdev Narayan Yadav said Bhagwat's statement led to the BJP's defeat, Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha appealed for introspection and former minister Chandra Mohan Rai blamed the troika of Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Mangal Pandey.
Hukumdev, a five-time MP with a socialist background, said the RSS chief's suggestion for reviewing reservation agitated the backward classes and Dalits. Shatrughan, who has been lambasting the BJP leadership since the election process started, reached out to chief minister Nitish Kumar to congratulate him.
Before visiting Nitish's house, he tweeted: "It appears that the issue of Bihari vs Bahari (and Bihari Babu's absence) has been settled once and for all."
Six-time MLA Rai, considered a state heavyweight, said: "The BJP spent hundreds of crores in the election but the party suffered a humiliating defeat. The onus lies on the state leadership who kept Prime Minister Modi and party president Amit Shah in the dark about the real issues of the state."
He also attacked Union ministers and BJP in-charges Ananth Kumar, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav for the party's poor show.
