Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday blamed 'overconfidence' for the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the last general election.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance lost power to the Congress-led alliance in the election despite its high-profile 'India Shining' media campaign and extensive use of technology to reach out to voters.

Vajpayee, addressing a BJP parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi, said the party did not have any aim in the election because everybody took victory for granted.

The meeting saw former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani being elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. Vajpayee was elected chairman of the parliamentary party.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Vajpayee said the reasons for the party's poor electoral performance need deeper analysis.

Answering a question, he said there was no connection between the Gujarat riots and the election results.

Vajpayee did not comment on whether he was happy with the campaign launched by BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharti against Sonia Gandhi becoming prime minister. "This issue is pretty old now," he said.

Asked how many years he gave the Congress-led government in office, he jokingly replied: "I don't want to stay in the opposition for five years.