New clutch of regional bosses comes to the fore

The results of the Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand Assembly elections today saw many mighty political warriors biting the dust as some fearless ones from the margins grabbing the limelight today.

Who would have thought that Om Prakash Chautala, the chief minister of Haryana, would actually lose his seat? But lose he did from Narwana where young firebrand Congress leader Randip Singh Surjewala defeated him by a convincing margin.

Surjewala himself had reigned from the Congress, having been denied a ticket in the Lok Sabha elections and had nearly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in disgust, but was prevailed upon by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the last minute.

Former ghee merchant and main chief ministerial candidate from Haryana Bhajan Lal, who has the support of the biggest chunk of 25 plus legislators, won from the Adampur constituency by a margin of over 70,000 votes, stupendous by any standards for an Assembly election.

The Congress easily won two-thirds majority for the first time in Haryana, creating almost too many chief ministerial candidates.

Party leaders predicted that the claims of so many people might lead to a dark horse getting the top post and a resurgence of the "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" politics that Haryana is famous for.

With the mandatory cap on the size of the council of ministers, it would not be easy to satisfy the claims of all the Congressmen, they said.

Unlike in Haryana, the verdict in Bihar was as fractured as it can be. Although Chief Minister Rabri Devi won from the Raghopur constituency, her Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) fared so badly in Bihar that she stayed indoors the whole day on Sunday, electing not to come out.

The star of Bihar was undoubtedly Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan who, without a party structure or organisation, managed to wound the RJD and the Congress enough to win 29 seats. His support will be crucial in forming a government in the state.

Three persons are going to decide whether Bihar will see a chief minster or President's Rule: Governor Buta Singh, Paswan, who has to decide which party he will go with; and Nitish Kumar, the NDA's chief ministerial candidate.

Kumar was the chief minister for less than a week five years ago and lost the post because he did not secure the support of enough legislators, and is now wary that he does not face the same fate again. But one thing is clear: the top job in Bihar is going abegging.

In Jharkhand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren was washed away in the election and his two sons lost badly too. But his bete noire Stephen Marandi won the Dumka Assembly constituency. Soren, too, chose to stay away from the television cameras and was said to be hobnobbing with the BJP, which is in a position to form a government even without his support.

The BJP seems quite clear about the fact that in Jharkhand, the vote was an anti-incumbency one and that the non-performance of the Arjun Munda government cost the party dear.

Therefore, the chances of Karia Munda or even of Babulal Marandi, who did not contest the Assembly elections, becoming the chief minister are bright.

With the Congress storming to power ousting the Chautala-led INLD, Haryana today became the 15th state in the country to be ruled by the party, which is also heading the UPA government at the Centre.

Barring Jammu and Kashmir where the chief minister is now from the People's Democratic Party and would come to the Congress on rotation, in all other states the ruling party is heading the governments.

In eight states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, J&K, Meghalaya, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, the Congress is ruling in alliance with the regional parties. In the remaining states of Delhi, Punjab, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and now in Haryana, the party has got majority of its own.