BJP rubbishes claim of poll results marking its end

“Why did Girija Vyas take out her anger (at not getting a cabinet berth) on us when she said these elections marked the end of the BJP…elections are won and lost but this does not mean the end,” Swaraj said.

She reminded Vyas of the number of times she had lost and won the elections.

The BJP may have lost but it had not left the battlefield yet,Swaraj said adding,her party was determined to fight back. “We are 116 still while you had 114 in 1999.”

Swaraj argued that UPA claim of this election victory being a mandate for its policies was misplaced.

“The Prime Minister,Defence Minister,HRD Minister and Home Minister for four and a half years (Shivraj Patil) did not contest. The present Home Minister (P Chidambaram) won only after a recount. Mani Shankar Aiyar,Santosh Mohan Deb,Anbumani Ramadoss,Shankar Singh Vaghela and Renuka Chaudhary (all cabinet ministers) lost,” she said.

Swaraj said 21 ministers in the previous UPA government did not contest the Lok Sabha elections while 16 ministers lost the polls.

She maintained that the election results cannot be called a mandate in favour of secularism as the Left parties – whom she called the biggest votaries of the cause — were reduced to 43. Others like Lalu Prasad came down from 23 to 4 and Mulayam Singh Yadav from 38 to 22 seats.

“This is not a victory of your policies but of circumstances which went in your favour,” she said.

Swaraj accused the UPA government of hijacking the BJP election agenda and putting it in the Presidential Address.

“Advani was the first one to raise the issue of Indian black money in Swiss banks,one-rank one-pay was in our agenda,four NDA ruled state have already implemented 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayats and Chhattisgarh was the first state to give rice at Rs 3 per kg to BPL families,” Swaraj said.

This provoked Vyas to quip,”Are you testing our patience? Next you will say you made all the sacrifices and won us freedom.” Swaraj accused Vyas of digressing.

Accusing the UPA government of giving step-motherly treatment to BJP-ruled states,she said Chhattisgarh government was told to buy rice from the market while Madhya Pradesh was told to import coal to meet its power demands.