NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday said the results of the Goa Assembly elections were "satisfactory'' and said that though the pre-poll alliance failed to get a clear majority, the party would try and provide a ``stable and pragmatic'' government in the State.

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed its disappointment over the results. The party's parliamentary board that met here on Tuesday had no important decision to take.

Congress spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi said the party would initiate talks with ``like-minded'' parties and hope to give a stable Government. Asked about the party stand vis-à-vis Save Goa Front of rebel Congressman Churchill Alemao, the spokesperson said: ``we will talk to various factions and decide who will come with us.''

Mr. Chaturvedi said that after the recent upsets in Punjab, Uttarkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the Goa results would boost the moral of the Congress. ``It also shows that the Congress has been able to buck the anti-incumbency factor. It shows that the Congress Government is popular with the masses.''

The BJP that was hoping to make a comeback said: "It was a difficult situation. We expected to get 17 or 18 seats of the 33 we contested. The results were not up to our expectations," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. With a possible Congress-led government dependent on support from independents, "political instability is built into the situation."

The party general secretary who is in charge of the Goa elections, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, has virtually conceded defeat. Ahead of the results the BJP leaders were hopeful that the past record of the former BJP Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, would help the party notch a victory, but that did not happen. "There have been some gains by the BJP in recent elections," Mr. Javadekar said. "In Punjab and Uttarakhand, the BJP [together with the Akalis in Punjab] wrested power from the Congress, and in Uttar Pradesh and Goa we did not lose as we were not the ruling party there."

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