Verdict is for stability and change: Pranab

Senior Congress leader and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the people's verdict in the five states where polls were held was for "stability" and "change".

Senior Congress leader and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the people's verdict in the five states where polls were held was for "stability" and "change".

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"The verdict of the people is both in favour of stability and change. It may appear contradictory but it is not," Mukherjee told reporters at the Congress headquarters here as definite results of the assembly elections emerged from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.

"We want to express our gratitude to the people who supported us and gave us their mandate," he said, adding that in states like Tamil Nadu where their alliance with DMK lost they would try to come up to the expectations of the people in the next elections.

"We accept the verdict of the people with humility," he added.

The DMK-Congress alliance has lost in Tamil Nadu, while in Assam it has won, and in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine trumped the Left Front. In Kerala, the party-led United Democratic Front just managed to scrape through, while in Puducherry, the party is set to lose the reins of power.