Poll| BJP defers WB campaign: Are Modi, Shah on backfoot after Bihar?

BJP has reportedly postponed its poll campaign schedule in Bengal following its debacle in Bihar elections. Does this mean that the Modi-Amit Shah duo is on backfoot?

The BJP has postponed its campaign for next year’s assembly polls in West Bengal after the rout it faced in the just concluded Bihar assembly elections, with party president Amit Shah skipping his proposed “Utthan Diwas” public meeting in Kolkata on November 30.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with BJP president Amit Shah at an election rally in Bihar. (PTI photo)

Shah will now address public meetings in West Bengal late in December and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders will hit the campaign trail in January.

Read | After Bihar debacle, BJP postpones poll campaign schedule in Bengal

According to BJP sources the decision to defer Bengal campaign was taken to give time for inner-party rebellion to subside post Bihar defeat but the national leadership claims that the postponement was planned before the Bihar results came out.

Even as the noise over the poll debacle grew louder, Union transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said it was unfair to blame only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for the loss.