"I take maximum responsibility for the defeat because the elections were fought in my name. I will do penance for it," he told reporters.

Asked what he meant by penance, he said we will work very hard. "There will be no lacking in hard work," Vajpayee said.

To a question whether the next election would be fought under him, the former Prime Minister said no one knows what will happen in future but we will work very hard.

Meanwhile, BJP Parliamentary Board, the party's highest policy making body, has been convened on June 20 to discuss Lok Sabha electoral debacle and the Gujarat issue.

Announcing this at a press conference, Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, told reporters that the decision to convene the meeting was taken by party president M Venkiah Naidu after discussions with LK Advani who spoke to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Former minister Jaswant Singh and he himself were present alongwith Naidu when Advani spoke to Vajpayee in Manali, Mahajan said.

There are nine members in the Board and one special invitee.

Mahajan said the Parliamentary Board was all powerful and was empowered to take any important decision.

The meeting comes ahead of the BJP National Executive meeting in Mumbai from June 22 to 24.

Mahajan said the outcome of elections would be discussed in detail at the unscheduled Parliamentary Board meeting where Gujarat issue would also be taken up.

Asked why political issues cannot be taken up at the National Executive, he said "you cannot discuss any issue threadbare where you have 150 people."

To a question if the Parliamentary Board has been convened in the backdrop of Vajpayee's statement on Gujarat, Mahajan said "the press is free to interpret".

About Vajpayee's today's comments accepting maximum responsibility for the party's defeat, Mahajan said the former prime minister was the supreme leader of the party and as a general accepted defeat and has not blamed anyone else.

Vajpayee has also said that it was a collective defeat, Mahajan said and added that in BJP victory or defeat is always collective. "We never blame one person for defeat or credit one person for victory. We win or lose collectively."

Asked whether Vajpayee made the remarks today under RSS pressure, Mahajan said he was never in the habit of working under pressure and "we don't want to give credit for his statements to anybody else."

Besides Vajpayee, Advani, Naidu, Jaswant Singh and Mahajan, the other members of the board are Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Sanjay Joshi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Secretary of the board.