Bengaluru: As the Assembly poll results started pouring in and the ruling BJP faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Congress, the BJP has accepted the loss.

During a press conference at the party office in Malleswaram this afternoon, State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel said that the BJP has accepted defeat. The party had not expected such a rout as there were hopes that the BJP would win at least 100 seats.

However, that did not happen, and the Congress emerged as the winner. “We will analyse the results Constituency-wise in a day or two and introspect on the reasons why the party lost so many seats, which the party had hoped to win. Now that the results are out and the Congress is the winner, we will sit in the Opposition,” he said, adding that the BJP will gear up for the Lok Sabha (LS) polls next year.

When asked why the rallies of Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah seemed to have made no impact on the voters, Kateel said that was not the case. He stated that the verdict is also not against the administration of the Modi Government, while dismissing the Congress claims that the people’s verdict was, in fact, against Modi and Amit Shah, who repeatedly visited the State ahead of polls and addressed over 40 rallies. 

Kateel further added that the BJP will learn from this poll defeat and take corrective steps to ensure that the party wins the maximum seats in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.