Cong loses Punjab, Uttarakhand

The Congress suffered a setback today, losing governments in two states where it had been in power and edging slowly towards forming a government in a third. Anti-incumbency took its toll in Punjab and Uttarakhand and Manipur was set to be a hung house.

This immediately had its repercussion on the government in New Delhi. Whether price rise was an issue in the elections or not, all alliance partners and some Congress MPs launched into a private (and public) diatribe about inflation.

Elated at the party's performance in Punjab in particular, the Bharatiya Janata :Party (BJP) was at its jubilant best. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance managed to get 68 out of 116 seats in the state.

In one of the seats, elections were postponed. Between the Akali Dal and the BJP, it was the BJP, whose performance was more impressive.

The saffron party managed to get 19 out of 23 seats. With many new faces for candidates, the BJP's victory was a clear indication that the poll outcome in Punjab was neither against Amarinder Singh nor for the SAD, but against incumbency.

Party in-charge Arun Jaitley credited a careful selection of candidates for the party's good performance in the state. Further, "in seven out of 23 seats, which we contested, Congress rebels were fielded, which helped us as well," he said.

"What is significant is the fact that the urban voter, who usually votes Congress in Punjab, has chosen us this time," he added.

It's just as well, for the BJP had 'imported' Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its force-multi-plier during the election campaign. An ally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Bihar CM did the rounds in Jalandhar and Ludhiana, wooing sizeable number of Bihari migrants in the two districts.

The Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency was retained by the former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Siddhu of the BJP. He defeated Surinder Singla "" the Punjab finance minister in the Amarinder Singh-led government "" by a huge margin.

Talking to the Press after the final results, Amarinder Singh said that issues of anti-incumbency and the inflation proved to be the downfall for the Congress in the state. The elections this time was unique as the Congress lost its traditional centres of Doaba and Majha and swept the Malwa belt.

In Uttarakhand, the Congress lost because party leaders could not rein in the bureaucracy. The BJP was not without problems of its own. There was an impression that it was seen as a "friendly" opposition to the Congress.

Fratricidal infighting in the state unit was a serious problem. But a parivartan yatra, with 8-10 leaders of the state travelling together, ameliorated the infighting, while statements like "lal batti wale khushal, aam aadmi badhal (only those with red beacon lights are prosperous, the common man is on the streets) helped prop up an aggressive campaign.

"Our other challenge was to prevent any leader of consequence from moving on to Uma Bharti who had issued an open challenge that she would be giving tickets to all who were denied by the BJP," said a senior leader.

"Co-ordination between the parivar outfits and containing rebels was an important part of the strategy," he said.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was also pressed in to service in the two cities with a large undecided Hindu vote bank.

The party has been quick to look to the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Party president Rajnath Singh has said that the good performance will rub off in the state. Unofficial estimates puts BJP's estimate at 80 seats in the state assembly.

The Congress said in Punjab it was waiting to see how the new government would fulfil the promises made in the manifesto:free power and water for the agriculture and dal-atta at a lower price.