The BJP looked confident and upbeat despite its inability to reach the magic number of 44 in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

Congratulating the party’s workers in both J&K and Jharkhand, for which Assembly election results were announced on Tuesday, party president Amit Shah said 2014 has been a year of unexpected electoral victories for the BJP.

In J&K, Shah said, all options are open before his party. “All options are open. The option of forming a BJP government is open.

“The option of supporting somebody is also open. The option of joining some government is also open. All three options are open,” he told reporters at the party headquarters here.

He said that for the first time in the history of Jharkhand, people have elected a coalition with a simple majority.

He added that the BJP has become a “relevant democratic force” in J&K. “This is a message for all those who oppose development,” a beaming Shah said.

When asked who will be the Chief Minister of the alliance in Jharkhand, he said the Parliamentary Board of the party, scheduled to meet on Wednesday, will discuss the names before it.

Former CM Arjun Munda, the BJP’s top leader in the State, lost the elections. The frontrunner for the post is BJP vice-president Raghubir Das.

The Congress said its failure was mainly due to the inability to unite anti-BJP parties.

Single platform

“It feels that it would have been proper to bring all non-BJP parties on one platform. Results in Jharkhand would have been much better for us in that scenario. BJP has got only 30 per cent or so votes while non-BJP parties together have polled almost 70 per cent votes,” party spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said.

The Congress too is trying to cobble up an alliance in J&K. The party hopes the PDP will not enter an alliance with the BJP.

“We are always open. We have allied with PDP as well as with National Conference in the past. One thing is clear — that we will not go with the BJP. As far as they (PDP and NC) are concerned, we have had alliances with them,” Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha and former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad said. He added that the PDP has a mature leadership and hoped the party will take a decision keeping the ‘secular tradition’ of the State in mind.

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