Sunday, February 27 2005 14:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (Feb 27, 2005) described as a "step forward" its performance in Assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand and will decide its future course of action after its Parliamentary Board meets later today when the party will hold discussions with its allies.

"We have re-emerged as a front-runner in both Bihar and Jharkhand. While in Jharkhand, we were wiped out in Lok Sabha polls, in Bihar we were left way behind. The present performance, therefore, is a step forward," party General Secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi.

Asked how the party proposed to deal with the emerging situation in the two States, he said, "Our Parliamentary Board is meeting later today and we will be talking to our allies."

He said that the NDA's three-fold objective was to emerge as the largest group, free Bihar from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) "misrule" and to have "our own Chief Minister".

"We are emerging as the largest group. We have succeeded to a great extent in removing the RJD, but we have not been successful in achieving the third objective as the present trend indicates," Jaitley said.