By IANS
New Delhi : The ruling Congress did not do spectacularly well, but still had reason to smile Tuesday as it readied to form the government in Goa and won a crucial victory in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominated Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress also won the Ullal assembly by-election in Karnataka, but lost out to the BJP in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh. Besides, it was defeated in both the assembly seats in Chhattigarh and was a poor fifth in the party tally in the Jharkhand assembly constituency of Daltonganj.
The day provided some relief to the Congress, which in recent months had lost elections in three vital states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. It is hoping that the coastal state of Goa will turn the tide.
In the politically unstable state, the Congress and ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) clung on to power with 19 of 40 seats. Though the results foretold a hung assembly, it became clear that the Congress would rule with two independents throwing in their lot with the alliance – and enabling it to reach the magic number of 21.
The BJP, which has put up a fierce fight in the coastal state, won in 14 seats with smaller parties and independents claiming the rest.
Among the parties that made it to the assembly were the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Save Goa Front and the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP).
The BJP got a shock defeat in its stronghold Madhya Pradesh, with the Congress walking off with the Shivpuri assembly seat, won the last time by star leader and former tourism minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia.
The Congress' Virendra Raguvanshi won the seat by defeating BJP's Ganesh Gautam by 7,781 votes.
The victory came as a morale booster for the Congress, which made an impact in a state ruled by the BJP and saw it as a mandate against Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan.
The party also held on to the Ullal assembly seat in Karnataka, defeating the ruling BJP by 8,032 votes in the by-election held Saturday.
According to the State Election Commission, Congress' U.T. Khader polled 46,271 votes while his nearest rival, BJP's Chandrashekar Uchil, secured 38,239 votes.
There ended the Congress wins.
It lost to the BJP in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha in Himachal Pradesh, a state ruled by the Congress.
Its Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur was forced to quit the state cabinet after losing the seat to BJP's Prem Kumar Dhumal, a former chief minister, by 80,059 votes.
This came as a huge disappointment for the party, particularly because the by-election had been necessitated by BJP's Suresh Chandel being thrown out of parliament with 10 others for allegedly taking money to raise questions in the house.
Clearly, the Congress had failed to capitalise on the cash-for-query scandal.
Jharkhand came as another blow. The Congress lagged behind a shocking fifth in the final tally in the Daltonganj assembly seat, which went to former state speaker Inder Singh Namdhari, who contested as an independent with the backing of the BJP.
The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) was second in the state ruled by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) was third and NCP fourth.
Major gains for the BJP came from Chhattisgarh, governed by its leader Raman Singh. The party won the assembly by-elections from Khairagarh and Malkharoda, wresting the seats from the Congress and BSP respectively.
BJP's Komal Janghel defeated Congress nominee Padma Singh by about 16,000 votes in Khairagarh although it was always viewed as a Congress citadel.
In Malkharoda, Nirmal Sinha won by 22,000 votes, leaving BSP's Lalsai Khunte who had won it in 2003 high and dry.