Price wars: Cong bites dust in Punjab, Uttarakhand

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) The runaway inflation that broke the back of the common man coupled with an anti-incumbency wave turned the tide against the Congress as the party was dethroned in Punjab and Uttarakhand today while it appeared set to retain power in Manipur.

A triumphant BJP-SAD alliance reaped rich electoral dividends in Punjab on the eve of the harvesting season in the farm state with the Parkash Singh Badal-led alliance ousting the Amarinder Singh-led Congress regime from power. The SAD-BJP alliance bagged 61 seats in the 117-member House while the Congress got 44 in its bag in results declared so far.

Capt Singh, while conceding defeat, submitted his resignation to Punjab Governor Gen (Retd) S F Rodrigues. He has been asked by the Governor to continue in the office till the formation of the new government. With the Congress's loss, the anti-incumbency jinx continued in Punjab where no ruling party has managed to retain power since 40 years.

On a comeback trail in the fledgling state of Uttarakhand, witnessing its second assembly election, a resurgent BJP was on the verge of claiming power in the 70-member assembly, but seems likely to fall short of a majority on its own. With almost all the results in, the party has bagged 32 seats, far ahead of the Congress' tally of 21.

Senior BJP leader Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri, who was head of the election affairs in Uttarakhand, ascribed his party's good performance in the state to ''total absence of governance and prevalence of rampant corruption during the Congress rule''.

Manipur offered a glimmer of hope to the beleaguered Congress as the ruling party along with its alliance partner CPI notched up 28 seats of the 53 results declared so far in the 60-member House. A tie-up between the Congress and its allies at the Centre -- RJD (3) and NCP (5) -- seems likely if no party gets a clear majority.

In fire-fighting mode in the face of the Congress' electoral debacle, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the party's defeat in Punjab and Uttarakhand would have no bearing on the Centre as it was not a ''referendum'' against the UPA. Amid speculation that a wave of public anger against soaring prices swept away the Congress, Dr Singh said the government was trying to bring down the prices of essential commodities without affecting the growth process.

BJP President Rajnath Singh expressed happiness over the poll outcome and said the party's electoral success in Punjab and Uttarakhand was according to its ''expectations.'' The Left, the Congress' ally at the Centre, also trained its guns on the embattled ruling party, saying the reckless spree of privatisation, runaway inflation and the sale of farmers' land to the corporates led to its debacle.

Cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who resigned from the Amritsar parliamentary seat following his conviction in a road rage murder case, had taken an insurmountable lead of more than 1,00,000 votes in the bypoll, which was held along with the assembly elections.

Meanwhile, Congress' Vijay Bahuguna has won the Tehri-Garhwal parliamentary constituency, defeating BJP's Manujendra Shah, the son of incumbent MP Manavendra Shah, whose death in January necessitated the bypoll.

Among the prominent winners in Punjab were Chief Minister Amarinder Singh(Congress), SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal(Congress) while those defeated included former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur.

Heavyweight winners in Uttarakhand include former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari (BJP), former Speaker Prakash Pant (BJP) and Speaker in the outgoing Assembly Yashpal Arya (Congress).

The Congress' rout on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh elections is a wake-up call to the party to mobilise its resources and rethink its strategy for the coming ''mahasangram'' in the politically important state in April-May.

MORE UNI