BJP concedes defeat in HP polls

With trends indicating a victory for the Congress in his state, BJP's Himachal Pradesh chief minister P K Dhumal today conceded defeat and said that his party will now analyse what went wrong for them in the keenly fought elections.

"We will have to find out where we were found to be lacking. We were confident because in the last five years there was development. Every household in the state had benefited from our schemes. If an ample number of our candidates could not win, we will analyse and assess the reasons," Dhumal said.

"The voters form the kind of government that they want, and best wishes to the new government," Dhumal said.

He was asked by reporters if he thought that rebels had led to his party's defeat to which Dhumal said that an analysis will be done.

Dhumal today won from the Hamirpur seat defeating his nearest Congress rival Narinder Thakur by a margin of over 9,500 votes.

Earlier in the Capital, senior leader Shanta Kumar said that the party accepted the poll verdict.

"We accept the verdict. All people in the BJP had fought elections together. The people did not vote for us. We accept it," Kumar, a former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, told reporters.

The Congress, which put up a spirited campaign under former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, is all set to return to power in Himachal Pradesh.

He won from Shimla(Rural) constituency defeating his BJP rival Ishwar Rohal by 19,033 votes.

The party was leading in 35 seats in the 68-member Assembly. BJP was leading in 23, while 'Others' led in four seats having won in one. Congress had won 23 seats and BJP 41 in the 2007 polls.