NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leaders L. K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha issued a joint statement on Tuesday, criticizing the party’s stand on its debacle in the assembly elections in Bihar, NDTV reported.

“The results of Bihar election show that no lesson has been learned from fiasco in Delhi. To say everyone is responsible for defeat in Bihar is to ensure everyone is held responsible,” the statement said.

“It shows those who would have appropriated credit are bent on shrugging off responsibilty for the disastrous showing in Bihar,” it added.

“A principle reason for the latest defeat is the way in party has been emasculated in the last year. A thorough review needed for reasons for defeat,” the statement read.

The Bihar mandate has been seen by many as a comment on the 18-month performance of the Narendra Modi government. But senior leaders of the BJP, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, have said no blame can be pinned to the prime minister.

On Tuesday, after a meeting between its 12 top leaders — including Prime Minister Narendra Modi — to analyze the defeat, the BJP attributed it to its failure to gauge the effectiveness of the Grand Alliance.

Singh said, “We couldn’t understand the mood (in the state). Social equations were against us in Bihar. I have addressed at least 50 rallies.”

“We were wrong in thinking the Grand Alliance won’t be able to consolidate votes due to other small and regional parties,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said.