NEW DELHI: The Congress-led UPA is all set to retain power at the Centre putting up an impressive performance in states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to overwhelm the BJP-led NDA.
The UPA alliance was ahead in 250 constituencies with Congress alone leading in 198 seats. The ruling Front is just short of a little over 20 seats for the magic figure of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The NDA was leading in 157 seats with BJP ahead in 119 seats.
The Congress exulted over its victory saying it was a vindication of its policies.
Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term with the Congress having nominated him as its candidate for the top post, first time it had done in its history.
The Congress performance was spectacular in Kerala where it routed the Left Front and dealt a severe blow to the Marxists in West Bengal with help from ally Trinamool Congress.
It also swept Delhi, did exceedingly well in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and more than doubled its tally in UP leading in 20 of the 80 seats there.
The BJP has conceded defeat and said the party had performed below expectation and the mandate of the people was in favour of the Congress-led UPA alliance. "It has become clear that Congress and the alliance led by it has emerged as the largest coalition...though there was no clear majority," BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.
Putting up a brave face, Jaitley said the BJP honoured the mandate of the people with "due respect".
Commenting on performance of the party, he said "we performed well in some places but we performed below expectation in some other states.
"It is a collective failure," he said but made it clear that there would be no change in party's ideology.
Jaitley said the BJP had run a positive campaign during the electioneering.
The BJP has put up a good showing in Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The party was leading in 18 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 19 out of the 29 seats in MP and 15 out of 26 in Gujarat.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), her son Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee(Jangipur), Industry Minister Kamal Nath (Chhindwara), Veerappa Moily (Chikaballapur), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna) were among the prominent party candidates leading. Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) has won.
BJP leader L K Advani (Gandhinagar), party president Rajnath Singh (Ghaziabad), Yashwant Sinha (Hazaribagh), Jaswant Singh (Darjeeling), Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) and Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit) were leading while his mother Maneka Gandhi has lost from Aonla.
Other prominent leaders who were ahead were Sharad Pawar (Madha), Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, Lalu Yadav (Pataliputra and Saran), Kalyan Singh (Etah), Ajit Singh (Baghpat), Sharad Yadav (Madhepura) and Mamata Bannerjee (Kolkata South). LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan has lost from Hajipur.
Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi has won from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
Surprisingly, the Congress ally DMK put up a good showing leading in 18 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu while AIADMK, which had no member in the outgoing House, was ahead in nine seats.
The Congress was leading in eight seats but its stalwart P Chidambaram lost from Sivaganga. Mani Shankar Aiyar was trailing in Mayiladuthurai.
DMK candidates M K Azhagiri, son of chief minister M Karunanidhi has won from Madurai and Dayanidhi Maran was leadinf Chennai South while Union Minister T R Baalu was trailing in Sriperumbudur. MDMK leader Vaiko was trailing in Sivakasi.
Congress reaffirmed Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister now and Rahul Gandhi its future prime minister.
This election Manmohan Singh is our prime ministerial candidate, AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters here.
The prime minister's chair is Rahul Gandhi's future as he is the future leader of the party, Dwivedi said.
He said there were three decisive factors for party's good performance - leadership of the government by the Prime Minister, leadership of UPA by Sonia Gandhi and leadership of campaign by Rahul.
Dwivedi's remarks come at a time when UPA appeared all set to return to power.
Vote count: Latest updates
* Congress candidate Kapil Sibal wins. The ruling party is heading for a complete sweep in Delhi.
* BJP leader Maneka Gandhi lost to Dharmendra Kumar of SP from Aonla constituency, UP.
* Home Minister P Chidambaram (Congress) loses to Raja Kannappan of AIADMK by a margin of 3,555 votes in Sivaganga
* Shekar Suman loses to Shatrughan Sinha of BJP in Bihar's Patna Saheb constituency.
* Chiranjeevi wins
* Margaret Alva loses
* Chidambaram loses from Sivaganga constituency
* Kamal Nath wins from Chindwara
* Kapil Sibal wins Chandni Chowk seat
* Sonia and Rahul Gandhi call and congratulate Manmohan Singh
* Paswan trailing
* P Chidambaram trailing in Sivaganga, TN
* Yashwant Sinha leads in Hazaribagh
* Renuka Chaudhary trailing from Khammam, Andhra Pradesh
* Congress' Vipin Kumar wins Delhi bypolls
* Shekhar Suman trails
* Former UN undersecretary general and Congress party's Shashi Tharoor won the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat by over 80,000 votes.
* Maneka Gandhi trails
* BJP candidate J Shanta wins Bellary Lok Sabha seat, defeating Congress' NY Hanumanthappa by a margin of 2,243 votes.
* CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta leads by 40,000 votes over Trinamool Congress candidate Nure Alam Chowdhury in Ghatal.
* Murli Manohar Joshi trailing behind BSP candidate in Varanasi
* BJP Parliamentary Board to meet today evening to discuss the Lok Sabha poll outcome
* UPA and Fourth Front together cross 272
* Andhra headed for hung Assembly
* Lalu reduced to 2 seats in Bihar
* Mamata, Congress set to sweep WB
* Left, Third Front fall behind in race
* Renuka Chaudhary trails
* BJP marching ahead in Karnataka
* BJP leader LK Advani is leading by 35,000 votes against Congress' Suresh Patel in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
* Francisco Sardinha of Congress is leading by 1,095 votes over his nearest rival Narendra Savaikar of BJP in South Goa
* Sonam Gyatso Bhutia (SDF) leads over his nearest rival Lobzang Bhutia in Barfung (BL) assembly constituency in Sikkim.
* Cong leads in three Assam LS seats
* BJP wins Daman LS seat
* BJP candidate CR Patil leading by 16,843 against Congress candidate Dhahsukh Rajput in Navsari
* BJP candidate Balu Shukla leads in Vadodara by 52,000 votes against Congress's Satyajit Gaekwad.
* NCP President Sharad Pawar is leading over Subhash Deshmukh (BJP) by around 20,000 votes in Maadha
* In Baramati, Supriya Sule (NCP) is leading over Kanta Nalwade (BJP) by over 18,000 votes.
* Congress set to win Andhra Lok Sabha, Kerala, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, West Bengal
* Left's nationwide tally might be reduced to 25, scripts worst performance in West Bengal
* Fourth front leading in 30 seats
* Lok Janshakti Party supremo and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan trails behind nearest ruling JD(U) rival and former chief minister Ramsunder Das by over 9,500 votes in Bihar's Hajipur.
* UPA ahead of Maya, Mulayam in UP
* UPA set to return to power, Congress set to come back
* Manmohan set to be PM again!
* BJP leading in Himachal
* BJP candidate Sushma Swaraj is leading by over 18,000 votes in Vidisha Lok Sabha seat.
* Shibu Soren trailing in Jharkhand
* Left heading for worst performance in West Bengal
* UPA ahead in Vidarbha, Kalyan-Thane
* Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is leading over CPI(M)'s Robin Deb by 2,804 votes in the Kolkata South constituency.* Chiranjeevi leading in Tirupati
* Rahul Gandhi leading in Amethi
* Cong leading in Delhi
*BJP-Cong neck-to-neck in UP
*Sonia Gandhi leads in Rae Bareilly
*Naveen Jindal ahead in Kurukshetra
* S Bangarappa trails in Shimoga (Karnataka)
* PM to resign on Monday
* Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal of SAD is trailing by over 2207 votes from Congress nominee Sukhdev Singh Libra from Fatehgarh Sabha Lok Sabha constituency.
* Former Union Minister Digvijay Singh (IND) is leading by a margin of over 2,000 votes over his nearest RJD rival and Union Minister of State for Water Resources Jaiprakash Narain Yadav in Banka Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar.
* BJP's Prime Ministerial LK Advani is leading by about 3,800 votes against Congress' Suresh Patel in Gandhinagar parliamentary seat.
* Nitish heading for clean sweep in Bihar
* UPA leading in Assam, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat,
* TDP-TRS leading in Andhra Pradesh
* BJP leading in UP
* Dawcho Lepcha (SDF) leads over Aden Tshering Lepcha (Congress) from Yoksam-Tashiding (BL) assembly seat in Sikkim.
* V Narayanasamy(Cong) is leading by 9116 votes against his immediate rival M Ramadoss (PMK) in Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency.
* SAD nominee Hans Raj Hans is leading by 1947 votes over his nearest rival Mohinder Singh Kaypee of Congress from Jalandhar Lok Sabha Constituency.
* Shashi Tharoor leads P Ramachandran Nair (CPI) by 781 votes in Thiruvananthapuram.
* P Karunakaran (CPI-M) leads Shahida Kamal INC by over 20,000 votes in Kasargode.
* Sindhu Joy (CPI-M) leads K V Thomas of INC by over 3000 votes in Ernakulam.
* Congress candidate and Union minister Bijoy Krishna Handique is leading over his BJP rival Kamakhya Tasa in Jorhat Lok Sabha seat.
On the issue of alliances, Dwivedi said Left parties also have very little options and will also introspect in the post election scenario. "We had not broken the relationship, they had withdrawn support," he said.
The Left parties had withdrawn support to the Congress-led UPA government following differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
BJP in a state of shock, UPA set to storm in
New Delhi:The BJP has finally admitted that the Congress and its allies were way ahead of the NDA, as per verdict 2009.
"We missed the presence of Vajpayee," BJP president Rajnath Singh said.
“There’s something for us to learn and unlearn,” said party spokesperson Balbir Punj, conceding defeat around 11 am. The BJP parliamentary board will now meet in the evening to discuss the debacle.
The early trends of Verdict 2009, suggesting a Congress surge in the southern states, thereby helping it establish a comfortable lead over the BJP, have come as a huge disappointment to the BJP.
A section of party leaders was already convinced that the trend was unlikely to be reversed in the North, even if the BJP, as per projected estimates, was said to be doing well in Uttar Pradesh.
“The BJP may catch up with the Congress, when the results from Northern states start coming in, but it appears that the ruling party has an upper edge in the government formation exercise,” said a senior BJP leader, after initial results. “We had not expected the complete badgering that the Left got in Kerala, thereby, ensuring a very good show by the Congress there,” was the comment of another leader.
Left says it is ready to sit in Opposition
New Delhi:After facing one of the worst defeats at the hustings, the Left parties said on Saturday that they were ready to sit in the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha and would not support the Congress in government formation.
"Our expectations have not been fulfilled, we admit. ... Congress is in a position to form government. Let it form. We will sit in the opposition," CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan told reporters in New Delhi.
Asked whether the Left would support the Congress in government formation, the veteran communist leader shot back "why should they need our support? They don't need our support. We will sit in opposition and fight for the cause of the poor."
He said the Left parties would meet in New Delhi on Sunday to chalk out the future course of action and the four parties would hold meetings of their own to "review our work".
Asked about their Third Front partners like BSP, AIADMK, BJD and TDP, Bardhan said "we are not abandoning them".
He parried a question on whether the Third Front parties would also join the Left in sitting in the opposition, saying "let us see". The Third Front parties, including the Left, would be meeting here on Monday to take stock of the post-poll situation.
Earlier, senior CPI leader D Raja said the Left parties would also not allow the BJP to take any advantage of emerging situation.
"We are not with Congress party either at the end of the day or at beginning of the day...if the mandate is not for us to form a non-BJP non-Congress government, alright, then we will sit in the opposition," Raja said.
Orissa Assembly polls: Naveen's BJD posts landslide victory
Bhubaneswar:Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik's gamble of going alone in the 2009 elections paid rich dividends with the party posting a landslide lead in 100 of the 147 assembly constituencies and 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, far ahead of rivals Congress and BJP.
Naveen who broke the 11-year-long alliance with BJP just before the polls calling it 'communal', was rewarded by the voters handsomely as BJD with its pre-poll allies NCP and Left are expected to win anything between 95 and 100 seats against a simple majority mark of 74 seats. Naveen who is all set to create history by becoming the first Oriya politician to become chief minister for a consecutive third time led his party to a win no one anticipated.
Though JB Patnaik of Congress is the longest serving chief minister of Orissa, he could not score a hat-trick. Even Naveen’s illustrious father Biju Patnaik could never score a back-to-back win.
Reacting to the historic win, Naveen said he was feeling humbled by the mandate. "The people of Orissa have voted us for our pro-poor programmes," he said.
The party also exceeded its performance in Lok Sabha by leading in 14 of the 21 seats with rank newcomers like Siddhant Mohapatra leading in Berhampur seat ahead of union minister Chandrasekhar Sahoo of Congress by a comfortable margin.
Powered by a towering leadership of Naveen Patnaik and the populist scheme of Rs 2/kg rice, the party bettered its previous tally of 61 seats in the 2004 assembly polls. It even bettered its tally of 2000. Naveen was leading comfortably in Hinjili assembly constituency like several of his cabinet colleagues while his bete noire Bijoy Mohapatra of BJP was trailing by over 5000 votes in Patkura assembly seat.
UP: BSP ahead in 24, SP in 23, Cong 18 and BJP in 8 seats
LUCKNOW: Ruling BSP was leading in 23 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh followed by its arch rival Samajwadi Party in 22 seats, Congress in 21 and BJP in eight, official sources said here.
Top Congress leaders including its president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and BJP's Varun Gandhi were leading over their rivals by huge margins in their respective constituencies in Uttar Pradesh with BSP, SP and the Congress virtually running neck-to-neck in trends.
While Sonia is leading in Rae Bareli by a margin of over 1.42 lakh votes over her BSP rival R S Kushwaha, Rahul has established a lead of over 95,000 votes over Ashish Shukla of BSP in Amethi.
BJP candidate from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi is ahead of Congress's V M Singh by over 1.48 lakh votes.
Former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who is contesting as an independent from Etah is leading over his BSP rival Devendra Singh Yadav by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
In Mainpuri, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is leading by a margin of over 50,000 votes over Vinay Shakya of BSP.
Cricketer-turned-politician Mohd Azharuddin, who is contesting from Moradabad as Congress nominee, is ahead of BJP's Sarvesh Kumar by a margin of over 15,000 votes.
Former Union Minister and Congress nominee from Sultanpur Sanjay Singh is leading by a margin of over 45,000 votes over Mohd Tahir of BSP.
BJP leader Maneka Gandhi lost to rival Dharmendra Kumar of SP in Aonla.
Andhrapradesh Election News
Hyderabad:Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appeared all set to lead a second term as Congress inched towards the crucial 148 seats mark. Initial trends indicated that Congress was leading in 138 seats while the TDP was breathing down its neck leading in 125 seats though the total of the TDP-led grand alliance including TRS, CPI and CPM was more than the Congress, standing at 142 seats. The much-hyped Prajarajyam Party was tottering, leading only in 20 seats with PRP president Chiranjeevi himself trailing in Palacole seat while leading in Tirupati, the second seat from which he contested. The AIMIM was leading in seven seats while independents were leading in four seats. The Congress is likely to take the support of AIMIM and independents if required to form the government. At least half a dozen ministers of the YSR government were trailing and may lose. They include Energy and Minority Minister Shabbir Ali from Kamareddy and R&B Minister Jeevan Reddy from Jagitiyala
APCC president D Srinivas appears to be losing from Nizamabad (Urban) assembly constituency.
There were clear indications that voting patterns were different for Assembly and Lok Sabha. The Congress was leading in 22 LS seats while the TDP was leading in 11. The TRS was leading in only 4 seats with PRP in 2 seats. TRS President K Chandrasekhara Rao was trailing from Mahbubnagar LS constituency. In Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM was also trailing behind TDP's Zahid Ali Khan after the second round of counting.
BJD poised for hat-trick in Orissa, not to suppport Cong-led govt
BHUBANESWAR: Poised for a hat-trick third term BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik today said that his party would work harder for the state's development.
"I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity shown by the people of my state towards the BJD," Patnaik told reporters here.
"I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people. We shall work much harder and ensure peace, harmony, progress, development and welfare of the state," he said.
Asked which political formation his party would support at the Centre, Patnaik said that BJD would not align with a Congress-led or BJP-led alliance.
"We have been repeatedly saying that we are not going to support a Congress-led or a BJP-led government at the Centre," Naveen Patnaik told reporters here.
"I stand by my earlier statement," he said. "The BJD is a regional party and naturally our focus is on our state. We will like the government at the Centre to fulfil the just demands of the people of Orissa," Patnaik added.
"We are now receiving the trends, let the complete results come. After that I will sit with senior party leaders to chalk out our future course of action," he said.
TN leads: DMK-led front ahead in 27, AIADMK front in 9 out of 39
CHENNAI: The ruling DMK appeared to be doing well in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu establishing early leads in most of the 21 seats it DMK president M Karunanidhi contested but its key ally Congress was fairing badly while the AIADMK led front was ahead in nine constituencies as per latest trends.
Of the 36 (Total 39) constituencies for which trends are available, the DMK front was ahead in 27 while the AIADMK and its allies have established early leads in nine seats.
In neighbouring Puducherry, Union Minister and Congress candidate V Narayanasamy has established a lead of around 38,500 votes over his nearest PMK rival M Ramadoss.
DMK's arch rival AIADMK seems to be gaining at the expense of the Congress, whose prominent leaders including Union home minister P Chidambaram (Sivaganga), his cabinet colleagues Manishankar Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai) and E V K S Elangovan (Erode) were trailing.
Congress, which had ten seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha and contested 16 seats this time, is leading only in Theni, Cuddalore, Dindigul and Arani.
Notable among the DMK candidates doing well are chief minister M Karunanidhi and son M K Azhagiri, leading by around 62,000 votes against CPI-M rival P Mohan in Madurai and Union Ministers T R Baalu (Sriperumbudur) and A Raja (Nilgiris).
DMK's ally VCK leader Thol Tirumavalavan was ahead in Chidambaram by 18,000 votes against E Ponnusamy of the PMK.
MDMK leader Vaiko was trailing Congress rival Manik Tagore by 4,100 votes in Virudhunagar at the end of the fifth round.
Congress leads in 20 seats in Rajasthan, BJP in five
JAIPUR: Congress established an early lead in 20 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan while BJP was ahead in the remaining five constituencies.
Among the candidates who were leading were Congress' Sachin Pilot in Ajmer, Jitendra Singh in Alwar, Seeshram Ola in Jhunjhunu, Namo Narayan Meena in Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, C P Joshi in Bhilwara and Girija Vyas in Chittorgarh.
Other Congress candidates, who were ahead, were Jyoti Mirdha in Nagaur, Mahesh Joshi in Jaipur, Chandresk Kumari in Jodhpur, Ijyaraj Singh in Kota and Taranchand Bhagora in Banswara.
Those from the BJP who had established early leads were Dushyant Singh, son of Vasundhara Raje, in Jhalawar-Baran, Arjun Ram Meghwal in Bikaner and Ramsingh Kaswan in Churu.
Trends indicate setback for BJP, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra
MUMBAI: Early counting trends in Maharashtra on Saturday indicated a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, with the Congress and its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leading in many seats.
As per counting trends at 10.30 am, the BJP and the Shiv Sena were leading in 8 seats each, while the Congress is leading in 14 and the NCP in 10 seats, an election department official said.
Other parties like Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party were leading in one seat each. There are 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had bagged 13, NCP nine, Republican Party of India (RPI) one, BJP had 13 and Shiv Sena 12 seats.
The poll panel has not announced any final result so far.
Nilekani welcomes 'decisive' verdict of people
New Delhi:Welcoming the 'decisive' verdict of the people in the Lok Sabha elections, Infosys Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani said the UPA Government in its second stint has been given a mandate for taking "bold" reforms.
Commenting on the likelihood of the UPA returning to power, Nilekani said "these people (UPA) are sincere and therefore they deserve a second chance".
"It is a very decisive verdict. Also the message here is get on with bold steps, with bold reforms," he said in his first comments on the trends that the counting of votes has thrown up.
"Let's call it more of a national thing ... At the end of the day, at the national level there is vote for stability, of vote for decisive government," Nilekani said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his first term, may have been cowed down by the Left presence but in his second term he would have a free hand, he said.
"This is the first time you have the advantage," Nilekani said. "Also I think this time (for) the government there is no ideological barrier. In other words all the supporting allies have no ideological dispute with the Congress," he added.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said the UPA retaining power would see the stock markets reacting positively.
"(The) stock market is going to look at a responsible government under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh... The PM (Singh) knows the economy," he said.
The clear verdict for the pre-poll UPA alliance would mean little hang-up on key policy issues, Nilekani said. "I think that advantage means they can really decide the agenda very quickly," he added.
Left bastion crumbles in Kerala, West Bengal
NEW DELHI: Dramatic reversals suffered by the Left parties in the Lok Sabha polls will result in their being confined to sidelines after they held centrestage in national politics in the past five years.
The Left bastion in West Bengal and Kerala crumbled and heavily dented by alliances led by the Congress after breathing fire against its estranged partner and forging unity with the regional parties under the banner of Third Front with their tally going down by more than half.
The four parties--CPI-M, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc-- had a total tally of 60 in the 2004 elections.
In Kerala where the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front had got 19 of the 20 seats in 2004, this time got only four.
A major factor, according to analysts, was the serious factional fight amongst top CPI(M) leaders—Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan and party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
In West Bengal where the Left had fought Trinamool Congress on issues relating to industrialisation and land acquisition, the Mamata Banerjee-led party and Congress gave them a drubbing, bringing down the Left tally to its lowest level.
The Trinamool Congress-Congress combine increased its lead in 24 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal while its electoral ally SUCI was ahead in one seat trends of which were available till 1300 hrs.
Of the 42 seats, CPI-M-led ruling Left Front was leading in 16 constituencies.
Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh has established a lead of more than 2.40 lakh votes in Darjeeling constituency.
Trinamool Congress alone established a lead in 18 seats while its poll partner Congress was ahead in six constituencies.
Of the 16 seats, the LF candidates were leading the CPI-M was ahead in 10, RSP-2, CPI-2 and Forward Bloc- 2.
Prominent among those leading were External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee (Jangipur), Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee (Kolkata South) and Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi in Raigunj constituency and Basudeb Acharya (CPI-M). P
In their attack against the Congress-led UPA government, the Left parties had raised a major hue and cry over the Indo-US nuclear deal and later withdrew support with less than a year to go before their UPA term came to an end.
Congress set to sweep Delhi
NEW DELHI: Congress is all set to make a clean sweep in Delhi and win all seven seats.
Congress candidates Kapil Sibal and Mahabal Mishra won in the Chandni Chowk and West Delhi constituencies respectively. Union minister Ajay Maken has also won from New Delhi seat.
Ramesh Kumar of Congress has won from South Delhi defeating BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 93,219 votes. Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit won from East Delhi with a margin of over 2.4 lakh votes against his rival BJP's Chetan Chouhan.
Sitting MP Krishna Tirath defeated BJP's Meera Kanwaria by a margin of 1,84,433 votes.
In the last elections, Congress won six seats. An elated DPCC chief Aggarwal told PTI that the performance of Congress in Delhi and other metros clearly showed that "be it urban India or the rural, Congress is the peoples choice".
"The victory is a result of hardwork of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The BJP indulged in a negative campaigning. We were positive in our campaign from the word go," Agarwal said.
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