'Nobody needs to resign for the BJP defeat'

'If you want someone to resign, then I am ready to resign.'

Prabhat Jha is a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh and former Bharatiya Janata Party president from that state. Nearly a year ago, he was put in charge of the BJP in Delhi.

After the BJP's drubbing in the assembly election, there was the inevitable call for heads to roll in the party. The BJP won just 3 seats in the 70-member assembly.

Most people point fingers at the Gujarati duo -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national President Amit Shah -- for the debacle, while others blame the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi.

"Nobody needs to resign," Prabhat Jha tells Rediff.com. "If you want someone to resign, then I am ready to resign. I am in charge of the Delhi BJP and have been in charge for the last 11 months. I take responsibility for our defeat."

Quizzed about the reasons for the BJP's humiliating loss, Jha says, "I cannot tell you the reasons one day after the results. We will sit down and discuss. Our leaders will examine all the issues, what we have done and what we have not done. Then we will know the reasons for our loss and we will take remedial action."

He has been in charge for the entire election, Jha adds, and that is why he feels the buck should stop with him, and not Modi or Shah.

Image: A BJP worker outside the party's campaign office in New Delhi. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters