From chief minister, Raghubar Das cannot even become leader of the Opposition since he lost his home borough Jamshedpur East at the hand of his own former cabinet colleague Saryu Roy, whom Das had denied the ticket for Jamshedpur West.

“We are shocked over the result and his defeat is even more shocking because it is more or less a referendum on Das’s performance,” said a senior state BJP leader. “Roy has emerged as an icon for the Opposition parties. Das’s stature will certainly be reduced in the party because he could not fulfil the aspiration of the central leadership. The central leadership also can’t be absolved because they are the ones who gave Das a free hand to run the party.”

The problems may not be over for Das yet; Roy, who has been “exposing” corruption cases against Das, has a track record of ensuring convictions of former chief minister Madhu Koda and several others. Hence, Roy can be an asset for the new state government to bring legal troubles for Das and the BJP.

In Jharkhand politics, Roy and Das remained famed foes. Even when he became minister in the Das led government with two portfolios — parliamentary affairs and food, civil supplies and consumer affairs — their friction did not reduce.

Roy first resigned as minister of parliamentary affairs that was accepted and later on he offered resignation as food, civil supplies and consumer affairs. He even abstained from attending cabinet meetings.

“The central leadership was aware of their ego problem but no action was taken,” said a BJP functionary. “Das was instrumental behind denial of ticket to Roy. Had Roy contested from Jamshedpur West as BJP nominee he was sure to be defeated. Call it arrogance or overconfidence Das invited problems for him by denying him a ticket. You may call it aa Roy mujhe maar (come, Roy, hit me — a play on the Hindi idiom, aa bail mujhe maar.”

Party insiders said that under Das workers felt alienated and insulted.

“They were hurt over the CM openly slamming them and on some occasions he chided them with expletives,” said a veteran BJP worker.

Ayodhya Nath Mishra, who was part of the BJP’s manifesto committee, posted on his Facebook account in Hindi: “Will the bosses of the state BJP take a lesson from this stunning defeat and their electoral strategy? Your mistakes, tendency to neglect, and thoughts have left people dismayed.”

Many BJP insiders blamed people from non-BJP and non-RSS background dominating the party under Das.

“Party’s organisation remained subservient to Das,” said a senior party leader. “The party president remained docile and clueless. Even top RSS functionaries tasked with organisational responsibility remained Das’s yes men. We carried out massive exercises for booth committees and membership drive, all failed. We were self-deceptive. The result is a jolt.”