Congress president loses his own parliamentary seat in the Gandhi family borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state.

Rahul Gandhi, president of India‘s main opposition Congress party, conceded on Thursday he had lost his seat in the famous family’s long-held home constituency.

“Smriti Irani [of the BJP] has won in Amethi and I congratulate her. The people of Amethi have given their mandate,” Gandhi told a news conference.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) handed a heavy defeat to Congress and regional parties and Gandhi could not save his own seat in the constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state.

Congress has held Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state since 1967 except for one three-year stint in 1977-80 and a separate one-year period in 1998-99.

Gandhi, 48, won the seat in 2004, 2009 and 2014 and the constituency is considered one of the two Nehru-Gandhi family bastions.

The heavy losses suffered by Congress to Modi put an end to Gandhi’s hopes of becoming the fourth member of his famous dynasty to lead the world’s biggest democracy.

Votes counted so far indicated that the party won just 50 seats against 301 for the BJP, which secured an even bigger majority than at the last election in 2014.

“I can’t comment on the results today. I want to say that our fight is a fight for ideology. I want to tell our leaders, who won and lost, don’t worry, don’t lose confidence. We will fight together for our ideology,” Gandhi told the news conference.

“It doesn’t matter what I think went wrong. Frankly, people of India have decided that Modi should be the prime minister, as an Indian person, I accept it,” he said.

The Congress leader is, however, leading from Wayanad constituency in the southern state of Kerala.