This admission is significant, considering all the pre-poll hype. The saffron party was supposed to break through the glass ceiling and emerge as the undisputed leader. Despite a host of factors in its favour, the BJP is yet to capture the imagination of the people in the southern state in a big way.

Karnataka was supposed to be the gateway to the South for the BJP, and the constant refrain in the party ranks was that they would constitute the next government. But these elections have shown that on its own, the BJP is not exactly a potent force in the South; it needs to lean on the crutches of other parties to grow.

Much as the BJP leaders would have us believe that their defeat in Karnataka owed less to its own failings and more to the anti-incumbency sentiment againstthe Janata Dal (United) rubbing off, the inescapable conclusion is that the party is still nowhere near capturing the throne in Bangalore.The facts speak for themselves. The BJP won only a handful more seats than it had in the last Assembly election and lost as many as six Lok Sabha seats. No doubt the image of its ally, the JD(U), proved to be a major liability for the BJP. But if the voters only went by the company the party was keeping, it is more a reflection on the party's poor judgement than the people's.

If the BJP had really caught the voters' fancy, it should have posted a better tally, the image of its ally notwithstanding. If they had felt that the BJP deserved to be in government, they could have rejected the JD(U) while returning more BJP candidates. This did not happen. Wins in only 44 of the 129 Assembly seats contested are a bit out of sync with the image that the BJP has been trying to project that of a party contending for top honours.

There were indeed demonstrations of bravado by thelocal BJP unit on the idea of a tie-up with the JD(U). But it was not as though the state leaders did not realise that they stood no chance of taking a credible shot at power without the help of an ally. Even today, they say, had the BJP fought the elections in tandem with the Lok Shakti, they would have done better. Which, yet again, only implies that they really could not have done without an ally.

The story of the BJP in the South is essentially one of riding piggyback on the strength of regional allies. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are telling examples. In 1998, the BJP couldn't have won as many seats as it did without the AIADMK and, in the latest instance, without the DMK. In Andhra Pradesh too, it depended on the Telugu Desam Party's strength. It did win four Lok Sabha seats on its own in 1998 in Andhra Pradesh, but that had more to do with the image of A.B.Vajpayee than prowess at the local level. It did not reflect in any way the BJP's acceptance as a party which could govern the state on its own-- certainly not in the foreseeable future.

All this goes to prove that the BJP is yet to grow out of its perceived image of being a party whose relevance is limited to the north of the Vindhyas. Acceptance from all sections of the social spectrum in the South is still elusive. It did desperately try to fashion itself as something more than an upper castes' and traders' party by roping in certain influential people belonging to the backward classes, scheduled castes and even Muslims.

But this experiment did not meet with the desired level of success. These token leaders came in only to leave soon, disillusioned.

Large segments of the disadvantaged communities still find the Congress, the regional parties and those occupying the third space like the Janata Dal more responsive to their aspirations. Without winning these classes over, there is no way the BJP can entertain realistic visions of emerging as the ruling party in the southern states.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have strong regional forceswhich are difficult to unseat while Kerala has a well-established system in which power alternates between the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front. The BJP was unable to open its Lok Sabha account in Kerala, nor did it help the NDA increase its vote percentage substantially. Despite having teamed up with several marginal forces, the alliance could not even garner 10 per cent of the vote.

Karnataka may be its best chance, but Election '99 has dashed the BJP's hopes. It will have to wait at least for the next five years, when the next Assembly elections are due. As for the other three states, the best it can do for the time being is build castles in the air.