In further rumblings within the Bharatiya Janata Party over its big loss in Bihar, party MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav on Monday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota comments 'agitated' backward castes who rallied around the grand alliance and asserted that many who voted for the Modi government are not RSS supporters.
A five-time Lok Sabha MP from Bihar with socialist background, Yadav said Bhagwat's suggestion for a review of reservation was "ill-timed" and "agitated" backward castes and Dalits.
"The Party should analyse why backward castes voted solidly for the grand alliance. What Bhagwatji said agitated voters from backward castes and Dalits," he told PTI.
Asked if the beef controversy also hurt BJP's prospects, Yadav said only a thorough analysis by the top brass could shed light on it.
"Not everybody who voted for the Modi government agrees with the views of RSS or is its supporter. The party and government at the Centre should be sensitive to their sentiments too," he said.
Yadav, who was a minister in the previous NDA government, said Bhagwat's intentions may have been right and he merely wanted an academic debate over the issue but the timing of his comments was wrong. "It was ill-timed."
He, however, said party chief Amit Shah's controversial comments that firecrackers will go off in Pakistan if BJP lost the election has been proved right as he noted that Pakistani media was taking digs at the party after the loss.
Hinting that polarising Hindus may not work all the time, he said Hindus put castes above religion "unlike Muslims who put religion before other issues".
'Modi, Shah must shed arrogance'
In the wake of BJP's defeat in the Bihar polls, the Trinamool Congress targeted the saffron outfit as it said that its leaders should "shed arrogance" and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver on his promises, failing which they will "lose every poll henceforth".
Urging Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to take lessons from the Bihar polls, senior TMC leader Sultan Ahmed said that the victory for the grand alliance had also shown that "politics of hatred, intolerance and polarisation" will no longer bear results in Indian politics.
The prime minister must also speak out against the "loud mouths" in his party and RSS who are making provocative statements, said Lok Sabha MP Ahmed.
"The Bihar results have shown that the politics of hatred, intolerance and polarisation have no place in Indian politics. Modi and Shah should take a lesson from the results and shed their arrogance of power," Ahmed said.
"It's high-time for Modi to deliver on his promises or else BJP will lose each and every poll henceforth... Bihar has taught them a lesson," he added.
Continuing with his potshots, Ahmed said that Diwali has this year come early for the people of India due to the "defeat of communal forces".
'Talking more, working less lead to Bihar-like situations'
Talking more and working less lead political parties to "Bihar-like situations", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said taking a sharp jibe at BJP a day after the saffron outfit faced a drubbing in the Bihar assembly elections.
Kejriwal also mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying unlike his monthly radio programme, the Aam Aadmi Party government speaks the 'Mann Ki Baat' of the common man.
"Our government gives less speeches and works more. There are few parties which speak more and work less. They face Bihar-like situations. We speak your 'mann ki baat', not our 'mann ki baat'," Kejriwal said.
The chief minister was speaking at the inauguration of the city's first 'Polyclinic' at east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar constituency.
