M A I N   N E W S

Tripura stays with Left Front
Meghalaya throws up hung House

New Delhi, March 1
Nearly three months after being humiliated in Gujarat, the Congress today staged a comeback, ousting the BJP in Himachal Pradesh, and emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya, but was voted out in Nagaland while the Left Front retained power in Tripura.

In Meghalaya, which has seen six governments in the past five years, the Congress emerged as the single largest party, clinching 22 seats followed by the NCP with 14. The UDP bagged nine, the MDP four while the HSPDP, the BJP and the KHNAM secured two seats each in the 60-member legislative Assembly. Independents managed to get five seats.

The Congress is most likely to form the government in the state with the help of the NCP.

Prominent winners included the Chief Minister, Dr F.A. Khonglam, and his deputy D.D. Lapang. State Congress President S.C. Marak was among the losers.

The ruling Left Front led by the CPM, has retained power in Tripura. The CPM won 36 seats and its alliance partner, the RSP, bagged two and the CPI one. While the main Opposition Congress managed to secure only 12 seats, its alliance partner, the INPT, won six seats in the 60-member House.

Prominent among those who won the elections are Chief Minister Manik Sarkar CPM and the losers include Opposition leader Jawahar Saha (Congress) and Speaker Jitendra Sarkar.

In Nagaland, the Congress, which had secured a two-thirds majority in the 1998 Assembly elections, suffered a setback as its main rival, the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF)-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), are going neck and neck. The Congress has bagged 16 while the DAN 22 of the 43 results declared so far.

Chief Minister S.C. Jamir was among the prominent winners while several ministers failed to retain their seats.

The results to the seven Assembly byelections spread over six states gave the Congress two seats of Humnabad in Karnataka and Ratabari (SC) in Assam while the party allies — the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra bagged the Pampore and Bhokardhan seats, respectively.

However, the party suffered defeat at the hands of the BSP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly constituency of Gauriganj, a segment of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s Amethi parliamentary seat. The party also lost the Haidergarh seat in UP to the Samajwadi Party.

The ruling AIADMK won the Sathankulam seat in Tamil Nadu. UNI