State party president O P Kohli tried to reason that the BJP had slipped into a similar rut in 1971 and 1984, but had come back strongly after restructuring the organisation. But nobody was in a mood to listen.

Sources said the total difference in votes the two parties got in the Assembly elections had been a little over 2 lakh. But in the Lok Sabha results, that figure saw a steep rise and stood at 13 lakh. It was all because of infighting and bad management, party sources pointed out.

However, the official line to explain the defeat remained an argument for stability — the voter chose Congress because it was a stronger alternative, leaders said.

Though leaders had been warned by Kohli at the beginning of the meeting not to name names, several candidates obliquely referred to the shoddy management of the campaign by in-charge and Leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra. The campaigning was lacklustre even at its very best, they said. Workers also blamed the absence of star campaigners, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, leaders Hema Malini and SAD’s Parkash Singh Badal.

Monday’s meeting, however, set the ball rolling for the upcoming internal, organisation elections. The party membership will be renewed from June till August, followed by the election for a whole new set of party functionaries.

Some candidates claimed that several insiders had ‘sabotaged’ the polls. Originally the party’s only hope, candidate from West Delhi Jagdish Mukhi was the loudest on this. He reportedly blamed the campaign team of ill management and lack of foresight. He said the Akali Dal did nothing to bring out the Sikh community, nor were any public meeting planned for them. He also blamed BJP workers for campaigning against him.

South Delhi candidate Ramesh Bidhuri indicated that two MLAs, Dharam Dev Solanki and Satprakash Rana, and former MLA Brahm Singh Tanwar had undermined his campaign.

Chandni Chowk candidate Vijender Gupta also submitted a list of councillors who he claimed took money from him before elections but did not do any work. Gupta also blamed infighting.

East Delhi candidate Chetan Chauhan pointed out instances when the councillors accompanying him during padyatras had been abused by the public.

New Delhi candidate Vijay Goel kept low at the meet, once mentioning infighting, but later said such huge margins of defeat could hardly be blamed on intra-party squabbling alone.