Exultant over its good showing in the Karnataka assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the party should be invited to form the next government in thesouthern state and noted that the poll results would have nationwide ramifications.

"The verdict is against the Congress, decisively against the Janata Dal-Secular and substantially in the favour of the BJP," BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said.

He said that in view of the people's verdict, the BJP should get the opportunity to form the government.

"The governor should invite the BJP now as the people's verdict is clearly in our favour. It will be a case of gross political impropriety if the governor does not invite the BJP to form the government," Prasad said.

"You know the experience in Nagaland, Goa [Images] and Jharkhand," he said.

Prasad said it was a "great moment" and a "big day" for the BJP as the party has crossed beyond the Vindhyas to make a foray into southern India.

"The result will have a ramification all over the country," Prasad said, apparently referring to the next Lok Sabha elections.

Party spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy said the results in Karnataka will affect the national agenda and mark the end of the United Progressive Alliance.

Rudy said the issues of stable government and development were on the agenda of the party in the state, while terrorism, the Congress' Muslim appeasement policy, price rise and agrarian crisis are on the national agenda.

"We have been raising these issues and people have accepted our point of view," he said.

Commenting on the poll results, BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: "After delimitation, this is the political limitation of the Congress."

The BJP Parliamentary Board is scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss the results and government formation.

In case the party does not manage to get a clear majority, the meeting would be crucial.

A senior party leader said that though the strategy for government formation is yet to be worked out in the event of the party not making it to the half-way mark, it is banking on support from some independents and others and efforts have already begun in that direction.