Merkel's conservatives biggest winner in German poll

, Sept 23: German Chancellor

's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), emerged as the biggest winner in Sunday's federal election, official results showed early Monday.

The pair garnered 41.5 percent of the vote, while the largest opposition party, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), took 25.7 percent, according to the results, Xinhua reported.

Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union emerged as biggest winners

The Green Party, the SPD's favoured ally, captured 8.4 percent, and the Left Party got 8.6 percent, showed the provisional poll results.

Merkel's junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), however, failed to retain its seats in parliament, with its disappointing share of 4.8 percent falling short of the five percent minimum needed to enter parliament.

IANS