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The Congress on Sunday stormed to power in Uttaranchal, bagging 36 seats in the 70-member assembly.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party could win only 19 seats, as the results of all the 70 seats were declared in the evening.
The BJP suffered a string of defeats when its main bigwigs like former chief minister Nityanand Swami, Sports Minister Narayan Singh Rana, Tourism Minister Kedar Singh Fonia and Finance Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal lost at the hustings.
Except Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Health Minister Ajay Bhatt and Urban Development Minister Harbans Kapoor, all the BJP ministers have lost.
Significantly, the BJP has virtually lost ground in Garhwal region while it was able to save face in Kumaon region.
The Bahujan Samaj Party sprang surprise when it won seven seats, the majority of them coming from Hardwar district.
On the other hand, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, which spearheaded the separate statehood movement in 1990s, managed to win only four seats.
Congress Legislature Party leader Indira Hridayesh and its state general secretary Kishore Upadhaya won convincingly from Haldwani and Tehri seats respectively.
State Congress president Harish Rawat said the Congress Legislature Party would meet shortly to decide on the choice of its leader, but the final decision would be taken by party president Sonia Gandhi.
PTI
