Former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly criticized the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party , saying that a change of policy and an alliance with the nationalists is the reason for its poor performance in Turkey’s local elections last month, Reuters reported.

The AKP lost control of the capital Ankara and Turkey’s largest city Istanbul in the March 31 elections.

In his first major public challenge to Erdogan since leaving office three years ago, AKP member Davutoglu slammed the party’s economic policies, media restrictions.

Davutoglu served as PM between 2014 and 2016 before falling out with Erdogan.

“The election results show that alliance politics have caused harm to our party, both in terms of voter levels and the party’s identity,” Davutoglu said in a 15-page statement.

He stressed the need for reform within: “I call on our party’s executives and relevant bodies to assess all these subjects and our future vision sensibly and with cool heads.”

The AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) formed an alliance before presidential and parliamentary elections in June last year.