Munda gets summons from Delhi
Ranchi
The BJP’s defeat in Jamshedpur by-election might not have been a big jolt to the party’s national executive but has ruffled enough feathers for the leadership to call Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda and party president Dineshanand Goswami to New Delhi for an explanation.Both Munda and Goswami reached Delhi separately on Wednesday where they are expected to meet party seniors on the sideline of the meeting of State BJP presidents across the country on Thursday.

Goswami was beaten by JVM(P) candidate Ajay Kumar by a huge margin in the by-election. Taking moral responsibility for the defeat, he has resigned from the party post. “But this is not the end of the matter,” said a central BJP leader, adding, “resignation is no answer to what went wrong. It is an indication of a fall in popularity of the party. It is a serious issue.” Both Munda and Goswami may have to face questions on reports of infighting and organisational atrophy of the party in Jharkhand. Losing a prestigious seat like Jamshedpur, which Munda had won with a record margin the last time, would not be easy to explain.It is yet to be seen whether or not the central BJP will accept the resignation of Goswami and bring a new president for organisational overhaul. Sources in the party said the State BJP in-charge Harendra Pratap, too, is likely to be summoned with a detailed report on the organisational set-up of the party.“It is amazing to note that despite the fact that the party has to fight the Jamshedpur election the organisational elections here were not conducted,” the source said. The point to worry for the BJP bosses is that there is an urgent need of organisational overhaul in the party in view of the parliamentary elections in 2014. A section of party leaders now want the party to come out of the coalition government and focus upon the party and organisation for a fresh start. “The Jamshedpur result is a sign of failure of governance. We are facing a serious challenge from JVM that can be countered only by expanding the base of the organisation. If the Government is your priority then you are going to lose more in coming days,” a senior central BJP executive member said. Leaders of the conflict-ridden Jharkhand Congress, too, have arrived in Delhi seeking postmortem of the election result and a change of guard in the party. Leaders, belonging to the camps of State Congress president Pradeep Balmuchu and Union Minister Subodhkant Sahay, are currently engaged in an open spat. The State Congress is expecting a change of guard very soon but disturbing reports of backstabbing party candidate Banna Gupta in the election have central Congress leaders in a tizzy. Even if Balmuchu’s departure seems