Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav Tuesday accepted his party's defeat in the Assembly elections in Bihar and greeted National Democratic Alliance's chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar for the victory.

• Bihar Elections 2005

"We accept the people's verdict happily," he told reporters in Patna.

"We happily accept the the mandate of the assembly elections," Prasad said adding that the RJD would "fully cooperate" with the new government in the state.

"I hope the the new government succeeds in keeping the promises it made during the polls and no Bihari will go out of the state," he said.

Lalu claimed the people of Bihar were misled by the campaign of the opposition NDA, which "created an illusion that no development had taken place in the state during the RJD rule."

"Defeat and victory is a part of politics. Whatever the result, we accept with bowed head," he said.

Lalu congratulated Nitish, saying he was like his younger brother.

"I congratulate Nitish on a personal level, who is a good man and like my younger brother, but I am not congratulating the Bharatiya Janata Party," he said. 

He, however, said the poor people of the state, who voted for the NDA alliance under an illusion that they will turn around the situation, will realise in three months time that they were cheated.

Maintaining that he was not hurt or "pained", Lalu said the people of Bihar have put us in power in Delhi and he will continue for the development of the state.

"If Bihar can't change now it can never change," he added.

He said Bihar has always been neglected, but now that the UPA government is in power and the state's fortune will change.

It will offer full cooperation to the new government. He said his party was blamed for whatever went wrong in the state and now there are other people who will share the responsibility.

"My burden has come down," he said. Lalu said he would cooperate and help everyone who would work for the development of Bihar.

"We will perform the role of the opposition," he said.

He, however, refused to blame Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan for the poll debacle, saying, "Paswan was not in the race in the election."

The RJD chief also refused to comment on the role of Election Commission and central para-military forces during the election. "But everyone knows how our people were beaten up badly by security forces," he said.