SAD-BJP gets Punjab, U'khand for BJP, Manipur Cong

New Delhi, Feb 27: The SAD-BJP alliance today stormed to power in Punjab and the BJP was on the threshold of picking up Uttarakhand as incumbency and spiralling inflation proved to be the bane of the ruling Congress in these two states, ahead of the April-May elections in the crucial Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh.

Congress, however, had the solace of holding on to power in the northeastern state of Manipur where the ruling party notched up 30 seats in the 60-member House.

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 garnered 61 seats in the 117-member House while the Congress got 44 in its bag, of the 110 assembly seats, results for which had been 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 loss, the anti-incumbency jinx continued in Punjab where no ruling party has managed to retain power since 40 years.

A meeting of the newly-elected MLAs of the SAD-BJP combine has been called in Chandigarh tomorrow to formally elect the leader of the alliance partners' legislature group.

The meeting, convened by SAD President Prakash Singh Badal at the Punjab Bhavan here at noon, will be presided by Mr Badal himself, according to SAD Secretary Daljit Singh Cheema.

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 just one result to come in, the party's tally is 34 seats, far ahead of the Congress' 21, 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.

Former Union Minister B.C. Khanduri is likely be the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, a senior BJP leader indicated today.

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

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, was re-elected 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.

UNI