Cong wins Maha, Arunachal

Hung Assembly in Haryana as Chautala stages recovery

For the BJP, which faced a humiliating defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the results of the Assembly elections brought further misery.

Along with its ally the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Congress coasted to a comfortable victory in Maharashtra with a total of 145 seats in a House of 288, compared to 140 seats it had in the last polls.

The Raj Thackray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) won 13 seats, ruining the chances of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine which had to be satisfied with a total of 90 seats.
Of the 288 seats, the Congress won 83, NCP 62, BJP 46, Shiv Sena 44, Republican Party-led Democratic Front 14 and others 26.

This is the third straight victory for the Congress-NCP alliance in the state.

While it swept the North-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh bagging 42 of the 60 seats, the Congress suffered a setback of sorts in Haryana, winning only 40 of the 90 seats.

The Omprakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), in a surprise show bagged 31 seats. The Congress, however, is confident of retaining power by rustling up the required numbers with the help of independents and others. The other parties to win included the Haryana Janhit Congress of Bhajan Lal - 7, BJP-4 , BSP-1, Akali Dal-1 and Others 7.

Son rise

In Maharashtra, Rajendrasinh Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, won after trailing in several rounds while the children of senior Congress leaders Sushil Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Gopinath Munde, Chagan  Bhujbal and others also won. Poonam Rao, daughter of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, lost.

 In Haryana, four ministers and the state Congress president tasted defeat while former chief minister B

hajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishonoi, and Chautala and his son Ajay, won the elections.  There is, however, a question mark over the chief ministership in Maharashtra and Haryana. Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, the top contender for the job, said the ruling alliance’s performance was due to the dynamic leadership of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and team work by Congress-NCP combine.

As Sharad Pawar-led NCP has made it clear that it will not stake claim to chief minister’s post, the process of government formation is likely to speed up, Congress sources said.
Union minister and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was seen as a contender, however, said the CM will be from among the MLAs. However, he did not say Chavan will continue.

 The Sena-BJP leaders attributed their loss to the MNS which made its maiden foray in the 288-member House.

“We lost because MNS ate into the traditional Sena votes,” BJP’s Munde said. Senior BJP leader Muktar Abbas Naqvi blamed the electronic voting machines for the party’s defeat in the three states.

 Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi thanked the voters for choosing the party  again. He said the Congress will analyse the Haryana outcome.