BJP general secretary Narendra Modi in charge of Madhya Pradesh told a private television channel that it was a strategic failure on part of the BJP while in a ``revolutionary step'' the Congress changed 80 sitting MLAs.

He said the Congress, by fielding new faces in the Assembly elections, was ``able to dilute the intensity of the anti-establishment factor.''

Conversely, he added, the BJP could give only 18 new faces. ``Had we replaced more sitting MLAS with new faces, election results would have been different,'' he said.

Modi said there was no special reason for the party not coming up to expectations and its defeat in Madhya Pradesh ``was not a great loss for the party''.

Modi said the defeat may generate a debate, adding the setback to theparty was like cricketer Sachin Tendulkar being bowled out for 99 and the ``world accuses him, saying `What is this, he could not score a century'. Nobody counts his 99 as a credit''.

On the party facing an embarrassing situation at the Centre, having lost a ``promising'' Madhya Pradesh, Modi said he did not see any problem at the Centre as these were State Assembly elections and ``there is no way it would have any impact at the Centre''.

He said there was a vast difference between the loss of governments in Delhi and Rajasthan and not being able to bag Madhya Pradesh.

Modi said in Madhya Pradesh, the party had increased its tally to 120 from 112 in the last Assembly elections and ``votes polled in favour of the party had also increased''.

Asked whether the central leadership had failed to understand the situation in Madhya Pradesh, he said it was ``a question of our character.''