“Advani asked party MPs that they should not sign any documents without verifying and should also be careful in appointing personal secretaries. Last time we suffered due to this. They should also be careful in appointing aides,” said deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

While the BJP was trying to train its 58 first-time MPs into party’s culture and discipline, there was little to suggest that things were normal in the party. Senior party leader Yashwant Sinha, arguably the most articulate voice on finance and economy in the party, had not given his confirmation to speak on the Union Budget, till late in the day. There was a competition among senior leaders, including M M Joshi, on “who would initiate the debate in the House”, said sources. Another senior leader, Jaswant Singh, was still said to be “in his village” and party leaders claimed that “he had gone there for Guru Purnima”. Jaswant has earlier expressed his reservations over working under a much junior Sushma Swaraj, and then he was said to have problems over the allotted seat in the House.

Former BJP leader Kalyan Singh had an interesting take on the turmoil in the BJP when he said the party only believed in “serving the interests of the 15 per cent of population (upper castes)” and had “leaders who wanted to remain in the confines of air conditioned rooms”.