Many defeated BJP candidates on Thursday are said to have blamed the last minute changes to the state’s reservation policy as well as internal reservation within the SC subsects for the party’s poor showing in the May 10 assembly polls.

The candidates freely aired their opinion at the introspection meeting organised by the BJP in Bengaluru with BJP national general secretaries Arun Singh and CT Ravi, former CMs BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai and state unit president Nalinkumar Kateel in attendance.

The party had invited 66 sitting MLAs and all the other candidates who lost the polls.

Bommai and sections of MLAs felt they did not have enough time to successfully convey to voters the benefits of the changes in the reservation policy. The BJP regime had hiked the quotas for Vokkaligas, Lingayats, SCs and STs, while pushing the Muslims to the economically weaker section (EWS) quota. It also provided for internal reservation for SCs, which set the members of the Banjara (Lambani) community on a warpath with the government, provoking agitation at several places.

A BJP leader said the internal reservation for the SCs did not go down well with the Banjara community voters. A leader from the community said they have a significant concentrated presence in about 42 assembly seats, and their disappointment with the BJP helped the Congress win extra seats. The community had been aggrieved by the way the internal reservation classification had been carried out, and believed the proportion of its share had been meagre.

Karnataka follows a quota system for recruitment to government jobs and for educational admissions.Thursday’s BJP meet came amid talks of an imminent change of Kateel, who is nearing almost five years as the party state unit chief. There are speculations that the party may prefer a Vokkaliga leader to head the party to win back the community members, most of whom seem to have voted for the Congress to back DK Shivakumar’s leadership.Though it is more than two weeks since the Congress party assumed office, the BJP is yet to name the Opposition leader. The party is most likely to back Bommai for the position, as a demonstration of its continued commitment to the state’s largest community of Lingayats. Former minister Kota Sreenivasa Poojary is expected to be named the Opposition leader. With that the BJP plans to ensure representation to a leader each from the Lingayat, Vokkaliga and an OBC community.

The BJP sources said the talks about the choice of Opposition leaders as well as the state unit president were on, but the party’s parliamentary board will take a call on that very soon.

Bommai, in his interaction with the party MLAs and defeated candidates, said he would shoulder responsibility for the party’s poor showing in the election.

The senior leaders urged the party MLAs and other candidates not to lose heart but engage with party workers and prepare to deliver a good show at the upcoming polls to the Bengaluru civic body BBMP, panchayats and the Lok Sabha.