Rajnath Singh admits to 'shortcomings' in LS poll

BJP chief Rajnath Singh today said there were "shortcomings" that led to party's debacle in Lok Sabha polls and called for an "introspection", but vowed not to compromise on Hindutva for "the sake of power".

"After Lok Sabha polls there was an outcry that BJP should reconsider its ideology. Why should we re-reconsider it? Was there any referendum done on the Hindutva ideology?" Singh said during state working committee meet here.

"We cannot compromise on our values as they have given us a special identity. We cannot dump our values for the sake of power."

Stating that the so called secularists do not even want the word 'Hindu' to be mentioned, the saffron leader said, "Those who want to create rift among people on caste and communal lines and promote enmity are creating this confusion by limiting Hindu and Hindutva to certain boundaries."

On the party's poll debacle he said, "There were some shortcomings as the party's base declined a bit and we failed to win over the trust and confidence of people."

"We should introspect if we were active in our areas and as to why we failed to win confidence of people, despite all agitations and struggle on public issues."

"The problem is not with the workers or the people, but with you and me (leaders)," he told the state committee.

He said said the party would introspect and identify the causes behind its failure and take corrective measures.

"Irrespective of the fact that we do not get power for another five or ten years, we will stick to our ideology," he said and exhorted party workers to move ahead with conviction.

"Any person or political party which abandons its original character cannot survive for long," he said and claimed that "BSP started with bahujan samaj and then moved to sarv samaj, now it is back to bahujan samaj. See where the party is today."

He said even the Left paid price for deviating from its ideology. "People in West Bengal realised that CPI-M was no longer talking about welfare of all and it was reduced to 16 seats in Lok Sabha. Trinamool Congress raced ahead mainly due to the struggle of it's leader on issues related to public."

Alleging that Congress-led UPA was not capable of safeguarding unity and integrity of the country, he asked partymen to raise these issues among people.

On state politics the BJP chief said, "Both the parties (SP, BSP) are two sides of the same coin. People voted in favour of BSP (in 2007) as they felt that it can remove anarchy of the SP regime, but it turned out to be worse. There is no government in the state."

"If we look from national perspective, relevance of regional parties like SP and BSP is nearing an end and the country is heading towards a bi-polar polity," the BJP president said.