Dejected Advani offers to resign

Soon after it became clear that the party had suffered a huge loss in the Lok Sabha election despite a high-profile campaign led by him, PM candidate LK Advani suggested the BJP choose another leader for the new House. The offer was, however, swiftly rejected.

The proposal came at the BJP’s parliamentary board meeting. General secretary Arun Jaitley said Advani was unrelenting but president Rajnath Singh would try and persuade him to accept the post.

Party sources, however, said in the event of Advani staying adamant, former president MM Joshi or senior leaders Jaswant Singh or Sushma Swaraj could be asked to shoulder the responsibility of leader of the opposition.

A rattled BJP said it was a “collective failure”. The party, which had reached a high of 183 seats in 1999, had come down to 138 in 2004. Its vote share and number of seats declined further in this round, which may well be Advani’s last electoral bid.

While conceding defeat, Jaitley said, “Though no party or combination has got a clear majority, the BJP believes the UPA has the mandate to rule.”

He said the party did well in seven states but below expectation in other states. “It is not an outright rejection of the NDA’s policies as we have done exceedingly well in some states. “Last time, we were at 138, we remained 15-20 seats behind, but this time the NDA, which fought the election without two major allies, the TDP and the BJD, still managed to get over 160 seats.”

Meanwhile, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has ordered a three-member committee to look into the reasons for the humiliating defeat.