New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) A day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader S.S. Ahluwalia’s loss in the Rajya Sabha poll from Jharkhand, party leader Yashwant Sinha admitted that perhaps not enough was done to ensure success in the poll.
“I have not talked to Ahluwalia yet, but I will talk to him and try to know what the real reason was. But I think we should have worked more towards making him win,” Sinha, who is a Lok Sabha member, told reporters in Parliament House complex Friday.
A few party leaders, meanwhile, alleged horse trading in the polls.
“Congress might have given money to some independent candidates,” a party leader said.
A senior leader, however, said they were not blaming Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda for the loss.
“He had two things on his list – first to save his government and second to make our candidate win. He managed the first but could not do the second,” the leader said.
Munda, who is heading the BJP-JMM coalition in the state, was caught off guard when the BJP announced Ahluwalia as its candidate in the polls which were held May 3, after being countermanded once.
The BJP announced its candidate even as ally JMM had already pitched Sanjiv Kumar, who won along with Congress’s Pradeep Balmuchu.
