M A I N   N E W S

Cong heads for majority in Assam

Guwahati, May 13
The Congress is in sight of absolute majority in Assam, as they have picked up 27 of the 38 seats declared so far, drubbing completely the four-party alliance led by the AGP and the BJP.

The AGP-led alliance has only secured 11 seats and is leading in 30 others. The AGP alone has bagged eight seats while ABSU-backed candidates got two and the BJP got its lone seat from Behali.

The newly elected Congress MLAs are reaching Guwahati tonight and they are expected to elect unanimously Mr Tarun Gogoi, MP, the state Congress President, as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

So strong is the anti-incumbency wave throughout the Brahmaputra valley that even Chief Minister and AGP supremo Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was swept to the third place in Dispur seat.

The Congress’s icing on the cake was the complete capture of the Guwahati city’s four prestigious seats, which have been the citadel of the AGP for the past 16 years. In fact, barring a few seats, the Congress swept almost all seats of Kamrup district.

The results, trickling in from the Barak valley, also suggest that the BJP is trailing in most of the seats.

The election has also witnessed near rejection of the Left. UNI

Fractured mandate in Pondy

Pondicherry, May 13
The electorate in the union territory of Pondicherry threw up a fractured mandate today with none of the three fronts which fought the May 10 Assembly elections securing an absolute majority, making the task of ministry formation arduous, though not insurmountable.

The ruling Congress-led front, which bagged 13 of the 30 seats (Cong-11, TMC-2), was expected to stake its claim to form the government by seeking the support of the AIADMK, which annexed three out of the 20 seats it had contested.

Cong, BJP lose bypoll

New Delhi, May 13
The Congress and BJP today lost their hold on Shahjahanpur and Tiruchirappalli parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, respectively, while the CPI was leading by a comfortable margin in the third Lok Sabha bypoll in West Bengal’s Midnapore constituency.

The Congress also surrendered the Banamalipur Assembly seat in Tripura to the CPI, a constituent of the state’s ruling Left Front, while the Samata Party managed to stem the trend retaining the Kshetrigao Assembly constituency in Manipur, the by-elections for which were held on May 10. PTI