New Delhi, Nov 23: The Congress on Saturday termed the election results of Jharkhand as ‘positive’ and hailed the people of the state for ‘rejecting the politics of polarisation’ and showing a new path to the country.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera however termed the election results of Maharashtra as ‘unexpected’ and said that the ‘level playing field’ in the state was ‘deliberately disturbed.

Ramesh while congratulating the people of Jharkhand said, “The results of Jharkhand gave a positive message that the politics of polarisation can be defeated and we will certainly defeat it.”

“The level playing field has been deliberately disturbed in Maharashtra. The results that have come there are unexpected for us,” the senior leader said.

Expressing surprise over the Maharashtra results, Pawan Khera said, “Maharashtra had rejected BJP in the Lok Sabha election fought in the name of Narendra Modi because the public did not want to see Modiji as PM”.

He said that the same Maharashtra gave gave BJP 132 out of 148 seats after four months. “What kind of strike rate is this?”

Khera further alleged, “BJP-RSS had tried to create a laboratory in Jharkhand. Where BJP leaders started a campaign against their own central government. They started saying that infiltrators had entered here. But the people of Jharkhand completely rejected this kind of politics and gave victory to the government again that is working for them”.

Ramesh said that the issues that were raised during the Lok Sabha were still relevant for it.

“Our leaders had raised issues like caste census, social polarisation, protection of the Constitution, removing 50 percent limit on reservation, Modani scam and these issues have not been rejected by the people of Maharashtra,” Ramesh added.

The Rajya Sabha MP said, “We were assuming that we would get the mandate in Maharashtra. The public was against the government and there was an atmosphere against them. The results may be adverse, but this does not mean we will step back. We will analyse the results”.

He said despite the results, the party and the workers will continue to work for Maharashtra.

UNI