Cong concedes defeat in Gujarat polls

NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday conceded defeat in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

"It is a great victory for him (Narendra Modi), it is a remarkable victory. I do not grudge him the victory," Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said as trends in the counting of votes indicated a clear win for BJP.
   
However, he said the election victory does not remove the 'blot' or invalidate what all had happened under Modi's chief ministership in the post-Godhra riots.
   
"An electoral victory can never invalidate violations of basic secular values," Singhvi said.

AICC General Secretary in-charge of Gujarat B K Hariprasad said the Assembly polls will have no bearing on the General elections.
   
"The Gujarat elections would have no bearing on the Congress' showing in the General elections," he said.
   
Hariprasad said the Congress' performance in Saurashtra was a disappointment as it had expected to make a big dent in the BJP's tally in the region.
   
"The results from the region are not up to our expectation. We expected to make a significant dent in the region," he said.
   
To a question on why the large turnouts in the rallies by leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were not translated into votes, Hariprasad said, "It was our responsibility to translate the large public response in the rallies into votes, but we failed."