NDA back on course despite hiccups

The 24-party combine has won 101 seats and was leading in 185 others — 14 more than the half-way mark — while the Congress and its allies have bagged 48 seats and were ahead in 135 seats, well below their expectations despite major gains in Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The left parties have won five seats and were ahead in 36 while others won eight and led in 54.

The BJP looked certain for major reverses in Uttar Pradesh, crucial from electoral arithmetic point of view, where it was likely to lose about 25 of the 57 seats it had won in 1998.

Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party put up a good show by leading in 23 and 15 constituencies respectively while the Congress appeared to show signs of revival in Uttar Pradesh.

Among the prominent winners were Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who defeated Karan Singh of Congress in Lucknow by a reduced margin of 1.23 lakh votes and Congress president Sonia Gandhi who made a triumphant debut in electoral politics defeating Sushma Swaraj of BJP in Bellary in Karnataka. She was leading by 12,000 votes against BJP’s Sanjay Singh in her second constituency Amethi.

Other leading winners included Home Minister L K Advani (Gandhinagar), Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi (Allahabad), Minister of State for Human Resource Development Uma Bharati (Bhopal), senior Congress leaders Madhavrao Scindia (Guna) and Kamalnath (Chhindwara) and Murasoli Maran (central Madras) and Vaiko (Sivakasi).

Among the big heads to roll were Manmohan Singh of Congress in South Delhi, BJP vice-president K L Sharma (Chandigarh), Union ministers Surjit Singh Barnala (Sangrur) and Sukhbir Singh Badal (Faridkot).