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BJP finds results 'satisfactory'

Union Home Minister L K Advani said on Wednesday that the early results were satisfactory for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He said the exit polls had predicted absolute majority for the National Democratic Alliance but its opponents were not ready to accept it. No polls had given such a clean sweep to the BJP in Delhi. The 7-0 verdict is something which neither the Jan Sangh nor the BJP had got in the metropolis. It was for the first time in 22 years that the Congress drew a blank in Delhi, he added.

Advani said it was also significant that two senior Congress leaders -- Manmohan Singh, billed as the party's prime ministerial candidate, and R K Dhawan -- had lost with significant margins.

BJP vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy said the huge margin with which his candidates defeated the Congress leaders in their respective constituencies pointed to a new trend. ''The 7-0 victory in Delhi was something that had terribly shocked our opponents. Even yesterday the Congress had claimed it would win three of the seven seats," he said.

''Delhi is mini India. On the basis of Delhi results we feel that by and large the results will be the same for the rest of India. Right from the beginning we have been claiming that the NDA will have 300-plus seats out of which the BJP would account for 2/3rd seats. We feel our assessment may prove correct," Krishnamurthy said.

The main reason for the success in Delhi is Vajpayee's image, he felt.

UNI

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