Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which got a drubbing at the hands of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, admitted that his party had fallen way below expectations and that the party accepted the verdict of the people with great humility.
Addressing a press conference after a short Parliamentary meeting, which was attended by party stalwarts like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Kishenchand Advani and others, Rajnath said the party would assess the ground realities of the poll defeat.
"Well, even the media had not expected us to do that badly. Our expectation was that we would win at least 100 odd seats. After 14 years the people of the state have given a clear mandate to the BSP and we have been told to sit in the opposition. We will work like a constructive opposition. We welcome the change in the state administration," he said.
He denied that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had anything to do with the party's campaign strategy in the Assembly polls.
"The campaign was completely carried out by the BJP workers. When the Uttarakhand poll results did not have any bearing on the elections in Uttar Pradesh, why should the elections in Goa or Himachal be affected by the results of UP," he said.
He merely smiled when asked if the party had cancelled the celebration mithai order placed with a well known sweet shop after it became known that Mayawati was far ahead of BJP and its rivals.
"This looks like the brainchild of a fertile brain," he said.
Describing the election results as shocking, Rajnath, however, refused to own personal responsibility for the party's debacle in his home state.
Rajnath, who has been accused by some in the party of neglecting Brahmins in the state elections, refused comment when asked whether his party lost because of the BSP's Brahmin experiment.
With PTI Inputs