BJP disappointed at 'unexpected' results, misses Vajpayee

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday termed the Lok Sabha poll results as 'unexpected' and 'disappointing' and also said that it missed the presence of party stalwart and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the elections.

The party cited its not having allies in big states as the reason for the poor showing.

BJP president Rajnath Singh conceded that he had not anticipated the party's downturn.

'The BJP's performance in the results is very unexpected. The success for the NDA that we had hoped for has not materialised. The reasons for this will be discussed later,' Rajnath Singh told reporters after counting trends showed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance set to emerge victorious again.

'Certainly results are not on expected lines. The BJP has conceded defeat. We are really missing Atalji's presence in the elections and campaign,' BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said.

'Early trends for BJP are disappointing,' the party's campaign strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni said.

Giving the reasons for the party's poor performance, Kulkarni said: 'There are two big factors. In the big states BJP does not have presence, but what is hurting us is that we do not even have allies. Secondly, in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Congress has done unexpectedly well.'

Echoing the same sentiments, BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj said: 'The results are not on expected lines.... Results in three-four states have not gone according to our expectations.'

Punj told reporters that his party had failed to perform as expected in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. At the same time, the Congress had gained enormously over the Third Front in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

'For these reasons, the Congress tally and the UPA tally is better than of the NDA,' he said.

Punj said the BJP parliamentary party would meet later Saturday to analyse the election results.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shanker Prasad denied that the defeat would spell the end of the party's alliance with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United in Bihar.

'Nitish and us are 'sukh-dukh ke sathi' (all weather friends). We have fought Lok Sabha and assembly elections together and stuck together despite defeats,' Prasad said.