M A I N   N E W S

By-elections
Cong, allies make gains
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 7
Except for its expected defeat in the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat, the results of the bypoll announced today have come as a relief for the Congress and its UPA partners, which have made fair gains in this round of elections spread over 10 states.

Although it was well-known that former TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao would emerge victorious in Karimnagar, given the strong prevailing sentiment for a separate state of Telengana, the Congress did manage to wrest the Bobbili parliamentary seat from the TDP, which it had held for the last six terms, by a narrow margin.

Besides winning a Lok Sabha seat, the Congress also won five of the 11 Assembly seats in the bypoll while the Left got two in Kerala and West Bengal and the NCP one in Meghalaya.

The BJP retained its Pandhana seat in Madhya Pradesh while its partner in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United), dislodged the Congress in the Manihari constituency.

The Congress also registered an important win in Karnataka when former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah, who was previously with the Janata Dal (Secular), won the Chamundeswari seat by a whisker.

Mr Siddaramaiah, who joined the Congress after he fell out with former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, scraped through, but his victory was being seen as a setback for the JD(S)-BJP ruling combine in Karnataka, which had gone all out to defeat Mr Siddaramaiah.

The Congress believes that this defeat will create further fissures between the BJP and the JD(S).

The CPM victory in the Islampur seat in West Bengal once again demonstrated that the rift between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, which contested separately, would always work to its advantage.

TRS chief Chandrashekhar Rao’s victory by a huge margin was not unexpected, but it came as a warning to the Congress-led government in Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress’ wins in the Chimur and Dariyapur seats in Maharashtra have come as a special relief for chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has been under fire for his mismanagement on various fronts, the latest being the Dalit uprising in the state. Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi's wife Renu’s victory in the the Kota Assembly seat is not just a setback for the ruling BJP government but is also a message to Mr Jogi’s detractors in the Congress.