A key ally of Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has said the efforts by the alliance in India's most populous state fell short and may have been inadequate.
Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar said that the party will reflect on the loss in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and work harder to convey their message to the voters.
"There is a saying that being unsuccessful indicates that the efforts to be successful were not adequate and there were shortcomings," said Mr Rajbhar.
"We could not take our ideology to the homes of the people and we will brainstorm over this and go back to the people again," he added.
Mr Rajbhar was speaking to reporters in eastern UP's Zahoorabad on Thursday night, after winning the seat by a margin of 45,000 votes.
The SBSP fought the UP elections in an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and won six seats.
In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly, the BJP won 255 seats, 53 more than the halfway mark of 202, while its allies Apna Dal(S) and Nishad Party clinched 12 and 6 seats respectively.
The Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav, which many expected would pose a stiff challenge to the BJP, won 111 constituencies, faring way better than the 2017 assembly polls when it had secured 47 seats, but failed to unseat the BJP.
Samajwadi Party allies Rashtriya Lok Dal of Jayant Chaudhary won eight seats while SBSP grabbed six.
In the 2017 elections, the SBSP had allied with the BJP and won four seats. Mr Rajbhar and his party have pockets of influence in eastern UP predominantly based on support by Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.
After the 2017 poll results, Mr Rajbhar was made a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, but resigned two years later saying that he was being sidelined in the government.
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