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t’s 3-2 for Cong
BJP suffers defeat in Raj and Delhi
New Delhi, Dec 8:Coming up trumps in the 'semi final' ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress today delivered a shock defeat to BJP in Rajasthan and swept the polls in Delhi and Mizoram while the saffron party won convincingly to retain Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Scoring a hat-trick in Delhi and getting a two-thirds majority in Mizoram after a decade in wilderness, the party, however, fell five short of majority in the 200-member Assembly in Rajasthan.
With a number of party rebels and independents winning in Rajasthan, the party hopes to cobble a majority without any difficulty.
Ousting the Vasundhara Raje Government, the Congress won 96 seats while the BJP got 78 and BSP six. Independents have won 14 seats while others account for six, including one of Samajwadi Party.
Creating history in the Capital, the Congress led by 71-year-old Shiela Dikshit romped home with 42 seats in the 70-member Assembly, leaving BJP far behind at 23 seats with its hopes of wresting power after a decade dashed.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and all six of her Cabinet colleagues emerged victorious. Opening its account, the BSP won two seats.
In Mizoram, the Congress wrested power from the Mizo National Front, winning 29 of the 40 seats.
The elections, seen as the 'semi-final' ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year, brought cheer to the Congress which had faced debacles in 13 States after coming to power at the head of a coalition at the Centre in 2004.
The BJP, which hoped to cash in on the terror card especially after the November 26 Mumbai attacks and sweep in all the States barring Mizoram, retained its grip on Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on development plank, breaking the jinx of failing to get re-elected in any State other than Gujarat.
Conceding defeat, BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the party's performance in the elections to the State had not been up to expectations.
"It is our defeat. The results in the Assembly polls have not been on expected lines. We will certainly review why our candidates could not win in some seats that were considered our stronghold," Malhotra said.
The women power in the new Assembly has shrunk to three, including Dikshit, from seven, though 81 candidates of the fair sex were in the fray. Besides Dikshit, Barkha Singh (RK Puram) and Kiran Walia (Malviya Nagar) were elected.
Five Muslims were also elected to the new Assembly, including Transport Minister Harun Yusuf and Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal.
Interestingly, Lalu Prasad-led RJD came to a sniffing distance with party candidate Asif Mohammad Khan losing out to three-time Congress MLA Parvez Hashmi by a razor thin margin of 400 votes in Muslim-dominated Okhla.
The contest in Okhla had assumed significance as tempers were running high following the encounter in Jamia Nagar in which two suspected terrorists allegedly involved in serial blasts across the country were killed.
This election also gave anxious moments for many top leaders like Ministers Raj Kumar Chouhan and Yusuf, Speaker Chaudhury Prem Singh and Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan as they had to wait till the last round of counting to emerge victorious.
As the election results sunk in, the atmosphere in Congress and BJP was a study in contrast.
Opening of champagne bottles, bursting of fire crackers and dancing to the beating of drums was how euphoric Congress workers celebrated their victory as BJP camp wore a deserted look. PTI
