Indias ruling Congress party has won a series of key state elections for the first time in four years, despite rising public anger over the attacks in Mumbai and the slowing of the country’s economy, according to international media reports.
The vote comes before national elections in early 2009 that will pit a Congress-led coalition against an opposition alliance, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which had hoped its rhetoric of being tough on terrorism would reap rewards.
Congress won three states – the capital mini-state of Delhi, the large western state of Rajasthan and the north-eastern state of Mizoram. The BJP won two large poor states in the middle of India, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Analysts had predicted that Congress, run by Sonia Gandhi, would face electoral oblivion in the series of major state polls, with an electorate of 92 million, for new regional governments. The Congress party has lost eight state elections in a row – last winning Maharashtra, the capital of which is Mumbai (Bombay), in 2004.
