FILE: PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah (Agence France-Presse photo)
As the BJP post-mortems its disastrous result in Delhi, ally Uddhav Thackeray has offered detailed if unsolicited analysis of just exactly what went wrong. "Neither (Prime Minister) Modi's appearances nor Amit Shah's strategizing worked," says Mr Thackeray's party, the Shiv Sena, in its newspaper today, stapling the blame for the defeat to the BJP's top two leaders.
Today's editorial in the Sena mouthpiece, "Saamana" pulls no punches in deference to the alliance that the party shares with the BJP. "The entire election campaign was run in the name of Modi... just as the party attributed its success in other states to Modi, they should do the same for Delhi."
The newspaper takes over where Mr Thackeray left off yesterday. As soon as the outsized victory of Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was clear, Mr Thackeray had said in Mumbai, "The people of Delhi have shown the might of a tsunami against a wave."
"The Modi wave" is used by the BJP as a summation of the Prime Minister's popularity.
The Sena editorial says Delhi punished the BJP for failing to combat rising food prices, unemployment and corruption.
The newspaper also says that the BJP erred greatly by running a campaign that attacked opponents. "Along with Modi, all BJP leaders mocked at (Congress Vice-President) Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal in their speeches."
The Sena's effort in providing macro and micro analysis of the BJP's defeat is, unsurprisingly, self-serving. The editorial says just like Delhi, the Modi wave will fail a validity test in Maharashtra.
Ahead of the Maharashtra election last year, the Sena and the BJP went through a nasty break-up. The BJP won first place in the election but not a majority. The Sena, which was runner-up, was made to sweat by BJP leaders before they allowed an alliance, which brought Mr Thackeray's party back to power after nearly 15 years spent in the opposition.