The Hindu Business Line : Shell-shocked NDA coalition bows out — Congress emerges as single largest party; to elect leader today

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Shell-shocked NDA coalition bows out — Congress emerges as single largest party; to elect leader today

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SAVOURING THE VICTORY: The Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, at her residence in New Delhi on Thursday. - V. Sudershan

New Delhi , May 13

IN an unexpected reversal of fortunes, the Congress and its allies and the Left parties on Thursday handed out a severe drubbing to the BJP-led NDA coalition at the Centre.

Proving all the exit polls and the political pundits wrong by a large margin, the Congress combine, as per the latest trends and declared results, has emerge as the single largest group and is all set to stake claim to form the next Government.A shell-shocked BJP, the majority party in the NDA coalition, accepted defeat even as the trends and results were pouring in.

By late evening, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, met the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and handed over the resignation of his Council of Ministers.

Amid jubilation at the Congress headquarters and at the 10 Janpath residence of the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, more so as the return to power came as a surprise to even the hardcore party loyalists, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met late in the evening.

Emerging from the CWC meeting, Ms Gandhi told newspersons that the process of the election of the party leader would take place tomorrow.

Party sources said that this process is to be initiated at the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Friday morning to elect its leader.

The views of the party's allies would also be sought.

It is clear from all indicationsthat the election of Ms Gandhi, who kept the party united and led the Congress campaign, remains a mere formality unless she herself deems otherwise.

Once that exercise is completed, the Congress President is likely to seek a written undertaking from each of the coalition constituents and proceed to Rashtrapati Bhavan to stake claim to form the Government.

The Congress combine has virtually wiped out the NDA in several States, including Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, and also succeeded in making major inroads into the BJP bastion, Gujarat.

Out of the 539 Lok Sabha seats for which counting started in the morning, the Congress combine was leading in 219, a clear gain of nearly 76.

The BJP-led NDA, on the other hand, had a clear edge over its rivals in 188 seats, which worked out to a loss of about the same number as the Congress's gain and far below the exit poll projections of 240-278 seats. Other parties were leading in 132.

Of the 188 results declared, the Congress and allies have won 88 seats while the BJP and its allies are behind with 66. The Left parties have bagged 24 seats while 10 seats have been won by others.

The available trends indicate that the NDA is likely to finish way below the 200 mark while the Congress combine is likely to finish with a tally of about 220.

The unexpectedly strong showing of the Congress and its allies was capped by its total sweep in Tamil Nadu and Haryana and landslide victories in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

Against a record 7-0 sweep in the last Lok Sabha, the BJP managed to retain only the South Delhi seat while the remaining six went to the Congress.

With much faster counting thanks to the EVMs, leaving no room for suspense, the writing on the wall was clear within an hour.

As the Congress combine moved far ahead in the counting trends, BJP leader, Ms Sushma Swaraj, contacted senior leader Mr L.K. Advani and both agreed that if the trend continued they would have to sit in the Opposition.

By noon, the trend turned into a drubbing and there was no turning back for the Congress.

Some of the BJP Ministers who have fallen by the wayside are the External Affairs Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and the Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik, from Mumbai North.

Some of the other VIP losers were Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, Mr Nitish Kumar, Mr Balram Jakhar, Mr Jagmohan and Mr Sahib Singh Verma.

The Congress has made major gains in Andhra Pradesh bagging 33 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State.

In Assam, the Congress got 10 out of the 14 seats while in Jharkhand, it won 12 seats, the BJP and Left getting one each.

In Haryana, the Congress gained ground winning nine out of the 10 seats.In Tamil Nadu, the BJP-AIADMK alliance was routed, failing to win a single seat.