BJP, allies get majority
Sonia wins in Bellary, Laloo trails

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) — The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a simple majority in the 13th Lok Sabha, bagging 285 of 515 seats, results for which were declared till 5 pm today.

The alliance was leading in 8 places as per trends from 21 seats.

The Congress and allies came second with 127 seats while leading in 7. Left parties bagged 42 seats while others, including the SP, BSP and the NCP, got 61 seats.

The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 177 seats and was moving ahead in four others.

Among the NDA partners, the TDP notched up 27 seats followed by the Shiv Sena with 15, JD(U) 16, DMK 12 and the BJD 10.

While the individual tally of the Congress was 105, its alliance partners AIADMK captured 10 and the RJD seven seats.

The Samajwadi Party bagged 23 seats and the BSP 12, seven more than the last House.

Although the BJP with wins in 172 seats appeared set to emerge as the single largest party in the new house, it was unlikely to cross its previous tally of 181.

The newly elected Lok Sabha members of the NDA will meet here on Sunday to elect their leader.

'We will be communicating to the President formally the election of our leader on October 11," Home Minister L. K. Advani told reporters after a meeting held at Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's residence here today.

The leaders of the alliance, which secured a simple majority in the 543-member House, will meet here tomorrow to take stock of the situation.

The prospects of the BJP-led NDA attaining simple majority were boosted by the good performance of its allies, particularly the TDP in Andhra Pradesh, the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the BJD in Orissa.

In their resurgent march to regain lost glory in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena had a tally of wins and lead in 38 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra where the Congress' prospects appear to have suffered a set back because of Sharad Pawar's nationalist Congress party (NCP).

In Orissa the BJP-BJD combine had wins and lead in 19 out of 21 seats. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP had won 29 out of 40 and in Gujarat 20 out of 26. In Bihar, BJP and JD (U) combine had wins and lead on 34 out of 49 seats for which information was available.

The BJP had a much improved showing after drubbing in the November assembly poll in Rajasthan, winning 16 out of 25 seats.

Defying pre-poll projections and anti-incumbency factor, the TDP and BJP led on 37 out of 42 seats in Andhra Pradesh.

The mascot of the ruling alliance, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee retained the Lucknow seat while the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, won from Bellary and had established a lead in Amethi.

The BJP-NDA’s other two prominent faces — Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi — retained their bastions at Gandhinagar and Allahabad, respectively.

In Madhepura, former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav was trailing behind arch rival Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav by 33,332 votes as counting continued this morning.

According to figures provided by the National Informatics Centre (NicNet), the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo had polled 2,60,150 votes till now as compared to 2,92,482 votes cast in favour of Sharad Yadav, who was the combined opposition candidate.

The Congress received a setback early in the day with the defeat of Dr Manmohan Singh from South Delhi. With this, the face which the Congress had been projecting as its best ace after Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, was wiped out from the scenario of the 13th Lok Sabha. Yet another disappointment for the party was the defeat of former Lok Sabha Speaker and union minister, Mr Bal Ram Jakhar from Sikar parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan. Mr Buta Singh, however, softened the blow for the Congress by retaining the Jalore seat. He had won last time from here as an Independent.

Another prominent winner of the day was the former Lok Sabha Speaker and Nationalist Congress Party leader, Mr P.A.Sangma, who won from Tura with a margin of 1.13 lakh votes.

Of the two seats that she contested, Mrs Sonia Gandhi won with a margin of 56,100 in Bellary against the BJP’s Ms Sushma Swaraj. The Congress President polled 4,14,650 votes against Ms Swaraj’s 3,58,550.

In Amethi, the counting will be a long drawn process. As things stand, in her electoral debut, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who had shied away from politics since her husband’s brutal assassination in May, 1991, seems poised to repeat her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi’s performance of winning a seat each from the North and the South in a Lok Sabha poll.

As the results and the trends poured in, it became increasingly clear that a polarisation was slowly taking place with the BJP at one end of the spectrum and the Congress at the other. The parties broadbanded under the nomenclature of the "third front", or referred to as "others" by the psephologists, seemed to be shrinking, yielding space on the national canvas to the two major parties — BJP and the Congress, in that order.

The biggest setback for the Congress came from the national capital where it had decisively won the assembly elections last November. Three Congress Working Committee (CWC) members were defeated in Delhi.

Beginning with Dr Manmohan Singh, all seven candidates of the party lost to the BJP, in what was being described as a "saffron wash". The victory of two former chief ministers of Delhi, Mr Sahib Singh Verma (Outer Delhi) and Mr Madan Lal Khurana (Delhi Sadar) was the highlight of the BJP’s triumph. Along with Dr Manmohan Singh, the Congress saw the defeat of another two CWC members: Mrs Meira Kumar, who failed to retain the Karol Bagh seat, yielding place to the BJP’s city Mayor Mrs Anita Arya, and Mr R K Dhawan, who once again lost the New Delhi seat to the union minister, Mr Jagmohan.

Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were the other States in North India which brought joy to the NDA camp with the BJP-INLD making a clean sweep in Haryana and the BJP-HVC taking all four seats in Himachal Pradesh.

Punjab, proved to be a dampner with the ruling SAD suffering reverses, including the defeat of Union Industry Minister, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, from Faridkot to Mr Jagmeet Brar of the Congress. Results from others seats barring Tarn Taran where Mr Tirlochan Singh Tur emerged victorious, did not bring much cheer.

In Jammu and Kashmir the National Conference nominee, Mr Omar Abdulah, retained the Srinagar seat, while Mr Abdul Rashid Shahin took the Baramulla seat defeating his nearest rival, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Baig. Mr Saiffudin Soz, who contested as an independent, ended up at the fourth place.

Surprisingly, the BJP opened its account in Goa with both its candidates, Mr Sripad Naik and Mr Ramakant Angle, emerging triumphant from Marmgao and Panaji respectively. They wrested the seats from the Congress.

The party also fared well in neighbouring Maharashtra and Gujarat. In Gujarat, apart from Mr Advani, who defeated his nearest rival, Mr T N Seshan of the Congress by 1.88 lakh votes in Ahmedabad, Mr Harin Pathak of the BJP won the seat for the fifth time in succession defeating his Congress rival by 52,968 votes.

The BJP retained nine and wrested one Lok Sabha seat from the Congress, which retained one and wrested another one from the BJP. The BJP took Kutch, Porbandar, Surat, Amreli, Dhandhuka and Valsad (both reserved) while wresting Godhara from the Congress. The Congress retained Kheda and wrested Patan (reserved) from the BJP.

Defying the trend, the PCC chief, Ms Girja Vyas wrested Udaipur from the BJP rival Mr Shantilal Chaplot, while Col Sona Ram (retd) was re-elected from Barmer, defeating Mr Manvender Singh, son of the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, by 33,188 votes. Mr Buta Singh retained Jalore.

Rajasthan also returned former union minister, Sisram Ola (Cong) from Jhunjunu who defeated his BJP rival, Mr Banwari Lal, by 76,000 votes.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP opened its account with the union minister, Ms Uma Bharti, defeating Mr Suresh Pachauri of the Congress in Bhopal while Mr J P Pavaiya wrested the seat from the Congress. The seat was held by Mr Madhavrao Scindia in the 12th Lok Sabha who contested from Guna this time. Mr Scindia won from Guna with a comfortable majority.

A prominent loser was a former Chief Minister, Mr Moti Lal Vora, who was defeated by over 25000 votes in Rajnandgaon.

Uttar Pradesh was on the verge of throwing up surprises, negating the BJP on the one hand and propping up the Congress on the other. The Samajwadi Party, which was written off by pollsters seemed to be springing a surprise along with the Bahujan Samaj Party. The two parties were expected to occupy the second and third positions respectively, ahead of the Congress in the state.

If the BJP’s vice president, Mr Bangaru Laxman, lost in Rajasthan to Mr Buta Singh, his colleague, Mr Karia Munda retained his Khunti seat in Bihar by over 26,000.

The JD (U) nominee and former Railway Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, defeated a Bihar minister, Mr Ramai Ram, by over one lakh votes to retain the Hajipur seat for the sixth time.

The Telugu Desam Party-BJP combine had gained ground both in the Lok Sabha and the state assembly. Among the prominent winners was the union minister, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, of the BJP who retained the Secunderabad seat while former CBI Director K Vijaya Rama Rao wrested the Khairtabad Assembly seat from the Legislature Congress Party leader, Mr P Janardhana Reddy.

Halting the victory march of the NDA was Karnataka where the Congress appeared all set to improve its last year’s performance when it won nine Lok Sabha seats.

Former union minister, C K Jaffer Sharief of the Congress won from Bangalore South while Mr Narsimhmaraja Wodeyar, who belongs to the erstwhile royal family, wrested Mysore from the BJP. The victory of union minister U Anantha Kumar from Bangalore was the saving grace for the NDA.

The BJP-DMK alliance was surging ahead in Tamil Nadu with former union minister Murasoli Maran (Madras Central) and Mr T R Baalu (Madras South) both belonging to the ruling DMK emerging early winners.

The lone Pondicherry seat went to Mr MOH Farook, who defeated the PMK leader, Mr S Ramdoss.

The Janata Party President, Dr Subramanian Swamy who single-handedly engineered the fall of the Vajpayee government early this year lost from Madurai to a CPM candidate Mr R Mohan.

The BJP’s attempts to have a "lotus" bloom in Kerala came to a naught so far with the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front setting the pace among themselves.

In the East, the Trinamool Congress won three seats, including one by its President, Ms Mamata Banerjee (Calcutta South).

Prominent winners and losers

NEW DELHI, Oct 6 (PTI) — List of prominent winners and losers in Lok Sabha elections:

Prominent winners: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (BJP) — Lucknow; Home Minister L.K. Advani (BJP) — Gandhinagar; Former Union Minister Jagmohan (BJP) — New Delhi; Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana (BJP) — Delhi Sadar; cine-star Raj Babbar (SP) - Agra; and P.M. Sayeed (INC) — Lakshdweep.

Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) — Calcutta (South); former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma (BJP) — Outer Delhi; Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli M. Joshi (BJP)-Allahabad; Ajit Panja (Trinamool Congress) — Calcutta (North-East); former Union Minister Buta Singh (INC) — Jalore; and Girija Vyas (INC) — Udaipur.

Prominent losers: Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (INC) — South Delhi; Congress leader Meira Kumar (INC) — Karol Bagh; former Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan (INC) — Gandhinagar; and BJP Vice-President K.L. Sharma — Chandigarh.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal — Karnal; former Union Minister Rama Kant Khalap (INC) — Panaji; former Minister of State Sukhbir Singh Badal (SAD) — Faridkot; Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy — Madurai; former Rajasthan Chief Minister Jagannath Pahadia — Ganganagar; Balram Jakhar (INC) — Sikar; Surjit Singh Barnala (SAD) — Sangrur and Manoranjan Bhakta (INC) Port Blair; Sushma Swaraj (BJP) — Bellary; and Mehbooba Mufti (IND) — Srinagar.