Patna: Despite the pain of falling short of majority in the Karnataka Assembly elections, results of which were declared on Tuesday, the BJP Bihar unit put up a brave face and said that more than anything else the message from the election was that the people of the southern state had rejected the Congress which was in power there.

As soon as the trends started emerging on news channels showing the BJP as leading in vote count, the BJP office here erupted in glee with party workers smearing colours on each other.

Senior leaders of the party, including road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav and health minister Mangal Pandey, visited the party office and were seen being congratulated by the party workers. The leaders were also offered sweets.

The Karnataka results had special importance for Mangal Pandey, who was made the in-charge of the central part of the state and he had led a team of BJP leaders and workers, many of whom were from Bihar, for almost a month to mobilise people's support for the party.

BJP state unit president Nityanand Rai who was in Delhi, issued a press statement in the evening stating that the outcome of the Karnataka Assembly elections, where the BJP emerged as the single-largest party, was a victory of the good works done by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to protect the interests of the poor in the country.

He also heaped praises on party president Amit Shah saying that under his leadership the BJP has not only become the largest political party of the country but it is also playing an important role in nation building. Taking digs at the Congress, Rai said it was because of the negative political campaigns of the party that people of the country were rejecting it.

Senior BJP leader and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is in Poland to take part in an official event, took to Twitter to slam the Congress after the Karnataka verdict.

"They played the dalit card then played lingayat card then tried to polarise but couldn't succeed," read his first tweet.

He came up with two more to maintain the tempo.

"Karnatak(a) ends Congress's NATAK," read the second tweet, which was followed by the final one: "Will Rahul visit Mandir even after defeat?"