BJP's top leader in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi asked after the results, "What has this election got to do with Modi?"
Smarting from a series of upsets in the by-elections in four states, the BJP quickly swung into damage control mode today, attempting to distance Prime Minister Narendra Modi from its below par performance.
The by-elections in 18 seats were the first electoral test after the general elections three months ago that the BJP, powered by Mr Modi, won magnificently. After coming in behind the Lalu-Nitish-Congress alliance in Bihar, losing a sure seat in Karnataka and even losing a seat to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP's leaders were at pains to de-link the general elections and Mr Modi from the state by-elections today.
"What does Modi have to do with these elections? Modi didn't come here asking for votes, these elections were based on local factors. We have won four seats and now we will introspect," said the BJP's top leader in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi.
The party could win only four of the ten assembly seats in Bihar for which by-elections were held. The Lalu-Nitish-Congress won six.
In Karnataka, where the BJP ceded its bastion Bellary Rural to the Congress and scraped through by a small margin in Shikapura, BJP vice president and former chef minister BS Yeddyurappa said, "Here the Modi factor is very less because we did not mention his name in the constituency."
The BJP could win just one of three seats in the Karnataka by-elections, allowing the Congress some satisfaction after its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Political rivals were prompt in alleging that the Modi magic is working no more.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said the by-election results showed that "people have realised that they have been conned by the so called Gujarat model of development and the personality of Modi, who has done nothing in the last 70 days except to inaugurate and take credit of all the projects which the UPA government had executed."