(From left) Sushma Swaraj, LK Advani and Rajnath Singh at a BJP meeting in Delhi on Monday. (Picture by Prem Singh)

New Delhi, June 8: Sushma Swaraj today asserted that the Congress’s victory was “circumstantial” in what was possibly the first response by a BJP leader that didn’t reflect self-pity or admiration for the Congress.

The remarks by the deputy leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, made during a debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, provided some solace to the defeat-rattled BJP.

“You (the Congress) have won because of circumstances which were favourable for you, nothing else,” she declared amidst thumping of benches by BJP members. Sushma was replying to the remarks of the Congress’s Girija Vyas, who said the election verdict marked the end of the BJP-NDA.

Sushma’s remarks are in sharp contrast to L.K. Advani’s mild posturing and description of the verdict as a vote for stability.

Even Arun Jaitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, didn’t offer party workers anything to cheer about, describing the result as a reflection of an “aspirational India”.

While senior party leaders had remained silent for over a fortnight after the results, Advani’s non-political aides had added to the confusion by citing infighting, bad campaign and ideological infirmities as the reasons for the defeat.

Many party leaders felt Advani’s closest aide, Sudheendra Kulkarni, had caused immense damage to the Sangh parivar by publicly harping on internal differences and the problems of Hindutva politics.

Sushma addressed that concern too, formally dissociating the party from Kulkarni’s views. Advani told reporters just before this evening’s meeting of the party’s central election committee that he agreed with Sushma’s views on Kulkarni.

Earlier, her speech seemed to have lifted the party’s spirits a bit. A BJP Rajya Sabha member said: “For the first time, we have offered something other than praising the voters for choosing stability and finding fault with our own campaign. Sushma showed she is capable of confronting the domineering Congress line-up while defending the party’s ideological position.”

Sushma said defeat didn’t finish off a political party and recalled how the BJP, limited to two seats in 1984, had raised its strength 40 times in the next election. Arguing against the Congress’s claim that the results showed the success of its programmes, Sushma pointed out that 21 ministers didn’t fight the election and 16 lost.