AGARTALA, Feb 2 (TIWN): Being asked by media whether BJP's failure in West Bengal and Rajastan polls would affect Tripura BJP's vote banks, Tripura BJP In-Charge, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "By-election never affects other states and thus it will not affect the Tripura Election too. By-Election results affect the state only where the election was held. Moreover, by-election is non-issue and it never can't predict party's strength for Assembly Election". "Once upon a time, the Congress used to celebrate Prime Minister's winning but today Congress is celebrating by-election results. Such a pathetic shape of Congress is", added Sarma.Reacting over Tripura Congress's celebration of its Rajastan winning, Sarma said, "What will they do, when Congress has no existence in Tripura at all".

The ruling BJP on Thursday conceded defeat in Rajasthan, where the Congress won the Mandalgarh Assembly seat and was poised to grab the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats.

Rajasthan BJP chief Ashok Parnami told reporters: "We respect the people's mandate and we will analyse the reasons for our defeat. I am taking responsibility for the defeat."

The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a major blow to its aspirations of putting up a good showing once again in Rajasthan in the next assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The party, which heads the state government led by Vasundhara Raje, lost the by-elections to both the Lok Sabha seats in Alwar and Ajmer, and the Mandalgarh assembly seat, to a resurgent Congress.

Even in West Bengal, where BJP was hoping to upset the applecart of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the by-election to the Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency and Noapara assembly constituency, the saffron party only managed to finish second to TMC, whose candidates won with comfortable margins.

The loss in the two Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan is a big setback to the BJP considering these were won with significant margins by the party in 2014, when Narendra Modi had led the party to power at the centre.