The BJP on Thursday hailed the verdict in the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls as a victory of its development agenda, while the opposition parties termed the outcome as a "moral defeat" for the saffron party, claiming that "jingoism does not work when people are living in misery".
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders gave messages of victory and thanked people of both the states, where the party is set to form the government albeit with a reduced majority, opposition party leaders criticised these claims of victory, saying there is a significant drop in BJP's vote percentage merely four months after its Lok Sabha election win.