Kalyan returned to his suite in UP Sadan as soon as the executive was over and refused to meet anybody other than his bureaucrats. He called on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the evening but again declined to disclose the import of the deliberations.

Earlier, the Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani told reporters that the issue of change in leadership in UP was being discussed by the party. Vajpayee, too did not rule out Kalyan's removal by saying, ``We will take a decision about him at an appropriate time.''

On Thursday, intervening in the discussion on political resolution Advani claimed that the party would have achievedits target of winning 200 seats on its own but for the setback received in UP. He, however, tried to soften the impact by saying that setback in a State or two should not dampen workers' spirit. What was important was to understand the mindset of the people, he added.

Analysis of BJP's poll debacle late on Thursday night generated lot of heat with senior leaders questioning the role of party's top leaders in the State during elections. The analysis prepared by State BJP president Rajnath Singh itself held both the Government and the party responsible for the losses.

Singh blamed internal bickerings of the party, tactical voting by people and anti-incumbency factor against the State Government for BJP's poor performance at the hustings. Its vote share went down almost by 10 per cent compared to last Lok Sabha polls, he said.

The report led to lot of questions from BJP leaders from other states as well, mostly quoting media reports about internecine differences between top BJP functionaries in the State.They also cited reports on a conspiracy to defeat the Prime Minister in his own constituency. Senior vice president Jana Krishnamurthy pacified everyone by saying that national executive was not the proper forum to dissect party's performance in such great details.

The executive felt that the main cause for setback in Karnataka was that the alliance with JD(U) did not go well with the people besides anti-incumbency factor against the JH Patel Government.

While the executive felt that ``steps should be taken to set things right'' party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu refused to elaborate on what kind of steps the party was contemplating.