With the defeat in Gujarat, the Congress came under renewed attack from the Left parties on the India-United States nuclear deal and economic policies with Communist Party of India even telling the ruling party to realise that secularism alone was not enough.

"The Congress should realise that secularism alone is not enough and it should do some serious introspection over its policies, particularly on the economic front. It should also rethink on the Indo-US nuclear deal and carry out mid-course correction of its policies," CPI national secretary D Raja said.

He told PTI from Tirupati that secular forces should also draw proper lessons from the Gujarat verdict, as the results show that they would have to unitedly intensify the struggle against 'communal fascism'.

Striking a similar note, the Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo said, "What is required is a determined and uncompromising struggle against the communal ideology of Hindutva and the capacity to launch sustained struggles of all sections of the people who suffered from the rightwing economic policies of the Modi government".

The CPI-M said the results show that where the impact of communal politics is deep, electoral efforts alone are insufficient to defeat the communal forces.