RJD stunned, Cong puts up a brave face, Left disappointed

The Congress today put up a brave face over its disastrous performance in the Bihar polls saying the party will have to start from scratch in the state while a stunned RJD said it was baffled by the election results.

The Congress today put up a brave face over its disastrous performance in the Bihar polls saying the party will have to start from scratch in the state while a stunned RJD said it was baffled by the election results.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who congratulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the landslide victory of the JD(U)-BJP combine, candidly admitted that her party was not expecting to make big inroads in the assembly polls.

"As far as our party is concerned, we did not have much hope. We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties. Results obviously indicate that our party has to start from the scratch to rebuild itself and that is what we plan to do," Gandhi told reporters at her 10, Janpath residence while reacting to the Bihar poll results.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewary said, "It was a difficult decision when we decided to go alone. By going alone the base which we had lost we would try to regain that...ultimately the position we have taken will stand vindicated".

A shocked RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said he accepted the defeat with humility.

"I congratulate Nitish Kumar not the BJP for the success story... though we accept the people's mandate with humility, we will soon undertake a thorough review what led to such astonishing results," Prasad told reporters in Patna.

He said "now when people have reposed faith in Nitish Kumar, they will like to see that the promises made by Kumar be completed in a time-bound manner." The CPI(M) said it was disappointed by the poll results. "Our number of seats have gone down in Bihar assembly... naturally we are disappointed," CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat told reporters outside Parliament.