Lok Sabha debacle haunts BJP as party begins crucial meet

The National Executive meet of BJP began here on Saturday amid demands by several senior leaders for a debate on the causes of the party's drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections. Party President Rajnath Singh is expected to send out a strong message in his inaugural address to the party cadre to maintain strict discipline and desist from discussing internal matters outside the party fora. The message is in the backdrop of recent controversies over leaders washing dirty linen in public that showed the party as a badly divided house after the poll debacle.
      
Singh is also likely to maintain that while BJP will not leave its Hindutva platform, the party will continue to have good relations with the RSS. The meet is expected to pass an all-encompassing political resolution which will cover the party's stand on playing the role of a constructive opposition, taking collective responsibility for the poll debacle, the state of the economy, India's foreign policy towards Pakistan, US, Australia and other countries, among other issues. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad will move the political resolution in the absence of Arun Jaitley, who is in Europe on a vacation.