'Advani proposed stepping down, BJP said no'

It was the first question hurled at Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Arun Jaitley at his final press conference of the day on May 16 at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.

"At the Parliamentary board meeting, Shri Advani told us he was not interested in continuing as the leader of the opposition and the party should elect another leader. He would, of course continue, to advise and lead the party on all issues," Jaitley said.

"But the board rejected his arguments and urged him to continue in that post. Our party president will talk to him and convince him," said Jaitley.

In his earlier press conference, he had insisted Advani was National Democratic Alliance's leader for the 2009 election and, though there had been speculation, no other name had been mentioned in this context by the party. It was the media who dragged in other names, Jaitley said.

There was also quiet praise for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with both Jaitley and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad mentioning how the party had strengthened its position in Gujarat.

But Jaitley refused to admit that talk of Modi as a prime ministerial candidate had affected the BJP. "Something certainly did go wrong (for the BJP) and something certainly did go right for the Congress. No election is decided, one way or another, on a single issue. There are a basket of several issues, including the situation in the states. But losing an election is no reason for the BJP to reconsider its ideology," claimed the BJP leader.

Both leaders also seemed to taking great pleasure in the decimation of the Left, particularly since they believe that the Third Front aided the Congress's spectacular performance.

In a press conference he addressed on Saturday afternoon -- which basically saw the BJP throw in the towel, Jaitley said, "Wherever the Third Front was being experimented, you saw a huge chunk of the votes going towards the Congress."

Text: A Ganesh Nadar and Savera Someshwar in New Delhi

There's one lesson, he said, that the BJP has already learnt after its impressive show in Karnataka. "While it is a lesson for us to expand, it is also a lesson to some parties in southern Karnataka about the direction they have to follow," Jaitley said.

Jaitley also blamed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thakeray for BJP's defeat in Mumbai, Thane and Pune. He said, "The MNS divided the anti-Congress vote and thus made it easier for the Congress to sail through."

In Andhra Pradesh, he said the anti-Congress vote was divided between the Telugu Desam Party and the Praja Rajyam Party which gave the Congress a decisive victory.

It was clear that the BJP had assimilated the fact that it will have to sit in the opposition benches for at least five years. Jaitley said that as the country was facing a serious economic crisis and a constant threat from terrorists, the BJP would fully support the government on those fronts. He said the BJP would be a constructive opposition and mentioned that Advani had called up Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh and congratulated them.

He said that the BJP would discuss the reasons for the party's debacle in party forums and then they would take remedial action. "Every election we learn new things," he admitted. "We take collective responsibility for the loss and we are not going to blame individuals. We still have a party to run," Jaitley said.

He said the BJP should not be castigated for its performance, since they had fought these elections without the support of earlier allies like the Janata Dal-United, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Biju Janata Dal.

He laughed when a journalist asked him whether the results had surprised him or shocked him. "We never get depressed with any result," he said.