BJP inching towards power, may need outside support to form govt

Dehra Dun, Feb 27 (UNI) Riding on an anti-incumbency wave, the BJP is on the verge of returning to power in Uttarakhand, but will fall tantalising by short of a majority on its own.

With a less then half-a-dozen results left to come in, the party has bagged 30 seats, quite ahead of the Congress' 22, while the BSP has made a strong showing in the Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts, winning eight seats, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) got two and Independents won three. However, the Samajwadi Party and the Uma Bharti-led Bharatiya Jan Shakti failed to register any win.

The largest victory margin was achieved by the BJP's Madan Kaushik (Haridwar), who won with a margin of 22,700 votes, while the lowest was the 14 votes for independent candidate Yashpal Benam -- who felled Education Minister Narendra Singh Bhandari in Pauri.

Despite a recount, Benam maintained his slender lead.

Mr Bhandari was one of the two ministers in the N D Tiwari government including the high-profile Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh who were defeated.

Ms Hridayesh lost to her BJP rival Bansi Dhar Bhagat in Haldwani by a margin of over 4000 votes.

However, Agriculture Minister Mahendra Singh Mahra, Health Minister Tilak Raj Behar and Power Minister Amita Rawat retained their Lohaghat, Rudrapur-Kichha and Bironkhal seats respectively.

Speaker in the outgoing Assembly Yashpal Arya (Congress) and his predecessor in the post Prakash Pant (BJP) won the Mukteshwar (reserved) and Pithoragarh assembly seats respectively.

However, the hill state's first Chief Minister Nityanand Swamy lost in Laxmichowk constituency to the Congress' Dinesh Agarwal.

Eds: Pls pick up from earlier series UNI