India's ruling Bhatariya Janata Party (BJP) said on Thursday the trend in the election reflected that state issues played a key factor in influencing the results.

BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley said here there were polls which persuaded us to go for early polls, but the trends indicate that states have their issues and there is a conflict between national and state issues.

Denying that Vajpayee was against holding of early polls, Jaitley said it was a collective decision of BJP and NDA.

"We do not consider it a mistake. Elections had to take place and it was an opportune time as we had won in three elections and uncertain summer was approaching," he said.

India's main opposition Congress party Thursday made unexpectedgains in the early counting of election results.

Shocked BJP leaders called an emergency meeting at party chief M.Venkaiah Naidu's residence to take stock of the disappointing results.

Thousands of officials began counting the votes registered in tens of thousands of electronic machines in 855 towns and cities across the country at 8 a.m.

Exit polls had predicted a hung parliament, with slight gains for the BJP-led coalition but major gains for the opposition.

An estimated 60 percent of the country's 670 million electorateexercised their franchise in the elections that began April 20 andended May 10, making it the longest electoral exercise in India.

Source: Xinhua