Bihar poll results unexpected for BJP, JD(U), says LK Advani

Senior BJP leader LK Advani today said the magnitude of victory for the NDA alliance in Bihar assembly elections was "totally unexpected" for him as well as chief minister Nitish Kumar.

"Both I and Kumar never thought that the JD(U)-BJP combine would cross the 200-mark in the 243-member Bihar assembly," Advani said in Bhopal.

He was speaking at a function organised to mark the completion of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's five years in office. Chouhan is the first non-Congress CM in the state to complete the five-year term.

Of the 102 BJP candidates, who contested the Bihar polls, 91 emerged victorious; while of the 143 JD(U) nominees, 115 won.

Addressing the function, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said the people of Bihar had shown they no longer believed in the politics of caste and family, and instead opted for development.

BJP general secretary Anant Kumar, in-charge of Madhya Pradesh affairs, expressed hope that the Bihar result would be replicated in the 2013 assembly polls in the party-ruled state.