Mixed bag in four assemblies elections
The factor of anti-incumbency was
centrestage in the Gujarat assembly poll as the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested a string of seats from the ruling Rashtriya Janata Party and raced towards power today by garnering 72 of the 123 seats in the 182-member assembly so far.
The BJP was, however, engaged in a neck and neck fight with the
Congress in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly.
The Congress has won 29 seats and the BJP 27 seats out
of the 61 results declared so far today.
The fledgling Himachal Vikas Congress, led by former Union communication minister Sukh Ram, has won four while an Independent candidate was victorious.
In the last Himachal assembly, the BJP had a mere seven seats
while the ruling Congress had 50. This time elections were held
for 65 seats as polling for the three remaining seats has been
rescheduled for June 21.
In Tripura, the ruling CPI-M-led Left Front is heading for an
absolute majority in the 60-member assembly even as it has conceded six seats to the Congress-TUJS opposition alliance so far.
The Congress was poised to form a government in Nagaland having
secured a brute majority of 53 in the 60-member assembly, 43 of
them unopposed in the face of poll boycott call by the extremists and some prominent non-governmental organisations. Independents have won six while the result of one seat is awaited.
The Congress also retained two seats and the BJP bagged one in
the bypolls to the three assembly constituencies in Karnataka.
In Gujarat, the BJP's spectacular performance sent the
Congress to a distant second with 40 seats and the ruling RJP of
Shankarsinh Vaghela into a total disarray with a mere four seats.
The Janata Dal and Independents have bagged three seats each while the Samajwadi Party opened its account in the state by securing one seat.
Trends from the remaining 59 constituencies indicated that the
BJP was leading in 43, followed by the Congress in 14 and the RJP
and the Janata Dal in one each.
In the last assembly election in 1995, the BJP had won 121
seats.
The BJP in Himachal Pradesh today claimed that it would form
the government with the help of the Himachal Vikas Congress and
some Congress legislators.
State BJP chief Prem Kumar Dhumal, who was elected yesterday
from Bamsan constituency, told reporters in Hamirpur the party plank of stable and clean government at the Centre had "paid
dividends" in the state.
Dhumal said some Congressmen were now questioning the wisdom
of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in recommending the dissolution
of the state assembly, almost one year ahead of its term which was
to end late this year.
In Tripura, the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front had secured 23 of
the 38 seats results of which have come in so far. The party has
also established comfortable leads in five seats.
The major setbacks for the CPI-M came in the form of the
opposition Congress-TUJS combine emerging triumphant in 12
seats. An Independent was also elected while results from 22
constituencies were awaited.
Elections for the Himachal Pradesh assembly was held along with polls for the three Lok Sabha seats on February 28. Polling for three tribal assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat was rescheduled for June 21 because of bad weather.
While one Lok Sabha seat of Shimla went to the Congress,
trends indicated that the BJP was ahead in two other Lok Sabha
constituencies of Kangra and Hamirpur. The Congress was leading in one out of the four remaining assembly seats.
UNI
|