Days after the scathing attack on the BJP leadership following the party’s debacle in the Bihar Assembly election, BJP veteran L.K. Advani on Sunday heaped praise on the NDA government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while casting his vote in the Ahmedabad municipal polls.

Mr. Advani expressed the hope that the BJP would be voted back in the local elections in Gujarat, saying: “I am hopeful that the results of the local polls will be the repeat of the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.”

“I can say that the consciousness of our party has increased [after the Bihar poll]. All efforts have been made here to see that the result comes in our favour. And these efforts will be certainly reflected in the result,” he said after exercising his franchise at Khanpur in Ahmedabad, where Mr. Advani and his family are registered voters.

“I believe the whole system takes its own time. Since the government is going in the right direction, I believe that the results will also be good,” he said, asked about the performance of the NDA government.

On Sunday, Mr. Advani appeared appreciative of the BJP leadership of Mr. Modi and Amit Shah.

After the Bihar election, Mr. Advani and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, M.M. Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Arun Shourie issued a strongly worded statement attacking the leadership for the fiasco and demanding that responsibility be fixed for the debacle. They said the party had been “emasculated” in the last one year and was being “forced to kow-tow to a handful.”

Mr. Advani, an MP from Gandhinagar, said the local bodies polls were as important as the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. In the municipal polls this time, 50 per cent of the seats have been reserved for women. Four candidates from one party per ward are in the fray. “I am happy that MPs are also allowed to vote in the corporation polls. I also learnt that 50 per cent seats are reserved for women,” Mr. Advani said.

(With inputs from PTI)