New Delhi, March 23: Outmanoeuvred by Sonia Gandhi’s sudden resignation from Parliament and the National Advisory Council, the BJP today tried to save face by claiming it was a triumph.

L.K. Advani suggested the BJP had forced Sonia to step down by its “firm” resistance to the Centre’s move to call off the Parliament session and bring an ordinance to save MPs holding offices of profit from being disqualified.

“The course of action adopted by the government was so outrageous that our immediate response was also very firm, and this firm response has led to this sequence of events,” the leader of the Opposition said in Varanasi.

BJP sources, however, admitted that the Congress president had outflanked the party, robbing it of what had even a day ago seemed a huge opportunity to put her on the mat. The BJP had just begun preparing to make Sonia ? and the planned ordinance “to protect her” ? a major plank of its twin yatras when she took the wind out of its sails.

The move has now put the BJP on the defensive, leaving it with the job of defending its own MP, V.K. Malhotra, who is also accused of holding an office of profit. The party has called an emergency meeting tomorrow.

At a news conference today, Arun Jaitley echoed Advani’s view that the Opposition’s protests had forced Sonia’s hand.

Asked if Malhotra, too, should quit, an evasive Jaitley said: “Every individual has his own case, which they should present before the Election Commission and the President. It is for the commission to decide.”

He wouldn’t say a word more on the subject, preferring to pour scorn on Sonia’s “grandstanding” instead.

He said the Congress president’s decision was a “desperate attempt to save her face after being caught red-handed trying to subvert the Constitution and Parliament. (The) politics of revenge has recoiled back and Sonia Gandhi has become a victim of her own conspiracy. This grandstanding will not help”.