"Not ready to accept this mandate," Priyank Kharge calls Bihar defeat "extremely surprising"

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], November 15 (ANI): Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge has called the Bihar Assembly Election result "extremely surprising", adding that the verdict is "not acceptable."
Coming on the NDA landslide victory in the Bihar Election 2025, Kharge said to the media, "It is extremely surprising and is not something we had expected. Since the verdict is out, let us see what happened and what the reasons are for it."
"Definitely unexpected and extremely surprising. I am not ready to accept this mandate. There is always winning and losing, but this kind of verdict is not acceptable. We have done our ground reality check before giving tickets. This entire thing is not the people's mandate," he said.
The comment came after the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) "tsunami" swept off the opposition Mahagathbandhan in Bihar with the BJP emerging as the single-largest party with 89 seats and the Janata-Dal (United) finishing a close second with 85, and the other allies of the ruling coalition also registering high strike rates.
The parties of the Mahagathbandhan, including the RJD and Congress, suffered significant setbacks, and Jan Suraaj, which had hoped for an impressive debut after its founder, Prashant Kishor, conducted an extensive campaign, failed to open its account.
The ruling NDA got 202 seats, a three-fourths majority in the 243-member House. This is the second time the NDA has crossed the 200-mark in the assembly polls. In the 2010 polls, it had won 206 seats.
In the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 89 seats, Janata Dal (United) won 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJPRV) won 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) won five, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats.
In Mahagathbandhan, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won 25 seats, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) - CPI(ML)(L) - two, Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) - one and Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M) one seat.
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five seats, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got one seat. (ANI)