Rahul Gandhi ?not upset? with Bihar results

New Delhi : Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said he is ?not upset? with the Bihar Assembly polls results, in his first comment, eight days after the party suffered a major setback in the state .

“I am not upset by the Bihar elections,” Gandhi told reporters here on Thursday.

On Nov 24, the ruling Janata Dal (United)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in Bihar with a thumping win, virtually wiping out the Opposition as it bagged 206 of the total 243 seats.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, congratulating Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from New Delhi, assured of the Centre?s sustained cooperation with the state government for the cause of development of the state.

The JD(U)-BJP combine swept the polls and went on to claim absolute majority, picking 206 seats between them.

Both the parties increased their individual tallies substantially to improve the total standing from 143 seats in 2005 polls.

The junior partner BJP swept the urban areas while the JD(U) maintained its strongholds.

The Opposition, on the other hand, made a dismal show, losing major ground across the state and being relegated to poor seconds.

Lalu?s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan?s LJP, which had contested the elections together, managed 24 seats between them, down from 64 in 2005 polls.

The Congress took a similar drubbing, bagging merely five seats against its nine last time.

Eight seats were bagged by others, including one by Communist Party of India.

The routed Opposition parties, conceding defeat, promised to come back strong in the state.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also congratulated Kumar for the clean sweep of the Bihar polls.

Gandhi said her party will ?start from scratch? and added, ?We did not have much hope. We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties.?