Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party veterans LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Singh slammed the current leadership for its loss in the Bihar elections, former party presidents Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu jointly responded to their claims on Tuesday evening. The three Union ministers said they welcomed the guidance of the seniors, but insisted the party's Parliamentary Board had held had a "detailed discussion" on Monday on the Bihar results.

The statement added that the party "will discuss this matter on various other forums including with senior leaders and attempt to overcome the shortcomings that led to the adverse verdict in Bihar". It also reiterated that the party had won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls under Narendra Modi, and many key Assembly and local elections since, with Delhi and Bihar being the only exceptions.

The BJP veteran leaders had earlier on Tuesday lashed out at the party leadership for its heavy defeat in the Bihar elections. They said that the Bihar results show that the party has not learnt any lesson from its defeat in the Delhi polls earlier this year, adding that "the party has been emasculated in the last year". They also demanded a thorough review of the defeat, which "should cover the way the party is forced to kowtow to a handful and how its consensual character has been destroyed".