BJP President Rajnath Singh on Saturday took responsibility for the party's Lok Sabha debacle but ruled out distancing itself from Hindutva ideology.

Asserting that it was not a national defeat for the party as the results varied from state to state, he said there was no questioning of holding an individual accountable for the debacle.

"We can't hold one person accountable for failure and the review of the defeat is an ongoing process. BJP believes in collective success and collective failure," Singh said in his inaugural address to the two-day National Executive that began today.

He said if one person has to take the blame "I am taking responsibility".

This is the first major gathering of the party leaders to discuss the electoral failure.

Singh said that the poll outcome showed that the country was proceeding towards a bi-polar polity and defended the issuesof Hindutva raised in the election campaign.

"We do not regret the issues we have raised. These issues whether communal reservation, communal budgeting or soft approach to terrorism were all in national interest," Singh said.

Singh talked about "national justice" and said the elections was not a referendum on cultural nationalism or Hindutva.