Congress gets power in Goa, sweeps Haryana but loses elsewhere

NEW DELHI: Congress, which came under attack during the political turmoil in Goa three months ago, on Sunday stormed back to power in the state and swept all the three bye-elections in Haryana but lost in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, where the Samajwadi party opened its account winning the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency.



Winning three of the five by-elections on its own and with its ally NCP bagging one seat, the Congress-led United Legislature party raised its tally to 21 in a house of 39 in Goa which came under President's rule in March after two controversial confidence votes that unseated BJP and placed Congress in power.



BJP won the fifth seat and raised its tally to 17.



It also has the support of UGDP MLA. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at present a Lok Sabha member, fulfilled the constitutional requirement of becoming a member of the assembly when he won the Kiloi seat with a huge margin of over one lakh votes defeating INLD'S Azad Singh Attri.



Two of his party colleagues, Savitri Jindal and Kiran Choudhary, rode a sympathy wave to secure similar margins of victory in Hissar and Tosham in the wake of death of their husbands O P Jindal and Surender Singh, both ministers, who were killed in a helicopter crash a few months ago.



All the seats were retained by Congress, which has 67 members in a house of 90.



The Samajwadi Party made its parliamentary debut from the south with former chief minister S Bangarappa winning the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency, which he had quit as a BJP member to join SP a few months ago.



He defeated Ayanur Manjunath, a former foe who now contested on a Congress ticket, by a margin of 28,000 votes.



Elsewhere, Congress ran out of luck. In the Chamrajpet assembly constituency in Karnataka vacated by former chief minister S M Krishna, the party lost to its coalition partner JD (S) when its candidate R V Devaraj was humbled by Jamir Ahmed Khan by 3278 votes.



In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, in the Penukonda assembly constituency opposition Telugu Desam's P Sunita defeated her nearest Congress rival B Sriramulu by a margin of 18,850 votes.



Sunita cashed on the sympathy wave generated by the killing of her husband Paritala Ravi, a TDP MLA, late last year in the faction-ridden Rayalaseema region of the state.



The ruling Congress-led united democratic front in Kerala was dealt a severe blow when its candidates belonging to Congress and CMP lost both the by-elections to CPI-M In Koothuparamba and Azhikode with record margins of defeat.



In retaining the two seats, the CPM)-led LDF improved on its performance in the 2001 Assembly Polls and bettered its lead in the last year's Lok Sabha polls in the two segments.



In Uttar Pradesh, retaining its supremacy the ruling Samajwadi party-RLD combine swept all the four seats to which by-elections were held. SP's nominees won in Allahabad (west), Varanasi (north) and Haiser Bazar (Reserved) while ally RLD's candidate won in Khairagarh.



The Congress legislature party will meet on Monday in Panaji to elect its new leader amidst indications that the race for the chief ministers would be among Pratapsinh Rane, Ravi Naik and Lusinho Faleiro.