New Delhi, Nov. 8: When the BJP plummeted to two seats in the 1984 general election, movie buffs Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani had consoled themselves by recalling the title of a Hindi film they had watched together in less stressful times.

It was Phir Subah Hogi (There will be another dawn).

When it was clear by noon today that the BJP had been trounced in Bihar, the handful of officials at the party headquarters seemed in too much of a shock to think of the morrow.

"We just don't get it - how could we have lost so big? It will take us a long time to get over this," an official admitted.

In 2010, the BJP had contested 102 seats as a Janata Dal United ally and won 91. This time it contested 160 but won just 53.

The BJP's central office had been decked out in anticipation of a win. Shamianas had been erected on the lawns of the adjoining bungalow, 9 Ashoka Road, which used to be Arun Jaitley's home.

Television monitors and mikes had been arranged, and caterers marshalled to serve breakfast, lunch and tea to journalists and party workers.

Everything was ready for a repeat of the celebrations that followed last year's general election victory.

Except that those in charge of the preparations had received an alert last evening to go easy on the making of laddoos, although a halwai had been lined up to make kilos of them.

The laddoos were missing today and the tents were deserted.

With the benefit of hindsight, some BJP sources are now saying that the party had appeared "defensive and confused" through the long campaign, as it had done during last winter's Delhi elections that heralded a season of setbacks for it.

"We failed to realise the enormity of the challenge the Grand Alliance posed in terms of numbers and ground-level dynamics, especially the political clout Lalu Prasad still wielded," a party official said.

Some of the principal reasons that BJP officials identified for the rout were:

? The NDA's failure to erase the eight per cent lead the Grand Alliance held from the start.

"We thought this gap was notional because we were convinced that Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar would not be able to transfer their votes to each other," an official said.

"But after the first few rounds of polling, we discovered to our shock that their votes had indeed been transferred. Conversely, our allies were not bringing anything substantial to the table."

? Sangh chief Mohanrao Bhagwat's repeated calls to revisit reservations for the Dalits, tribals and the Other Backward Classes.

"It was a suicidal thing to say, and Lalu Prasad milked it dry. That is how he was able to polarise not just the Yadavs but several other backward castes and the Dalits," a source said.

Bhagwat's statements are said to have "confused" the Sangh cadre, who had been pressed into service in the Bihar elections.

"The papers and local TV channels speculated endlessly whether the Sangh chief had deliberately repeated the statements to sabotage the BJP's prospects because he had a score to settle with Modiji. The Sangh's clarifications did not really help," a BJP official said.

A source close to Narendra Modi said that early last week, the Prime Minister had sensed that things were going off track in Bihar.

"He started saying we would have to introspect seriously after the elections and adopt the necessary correctives.

For a start he seemed unhappy with the controversies set off by statements from party and Sangh representatives."

While the Centre seems reconciled to the prospect of a washed-out winter session and further delay in passing the goods and services tax bill, BJP officials are worried about potential threats to the Modi-Amit Shah hegemony in the party.

"I expect Shah to become more vulnerable, and even Modiji could face pinpricks from those cabinet colleagues who are feeling left out," a source said.

Power play apart, the BJP's blueprint to increase its numbers in the Rajya Sabha by winning state elections has been ripped by the Bihar rout.

"Modiji has no choice but to himself reach out to the Opposition to get legislative business through," a cabinet minister said.