UPA all set to return to power in India

New Delhi, May 16 (PTI) The Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) is all set to retain power at the
Centre putting up an impressive performance in southern
state states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to overwhelm
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA.

The UPA alliance was ahead in 250 constituencies with
Congress alone leading in 198 seats. The ruling Front is just
short of a little over 20 seats for the magic figure of 272 in
the 543-member Lower House of Indian parliament.

The NDA was leading in 157 seats with BJP ahead in 119
seats.

The Congress exulted over its victory saying it was a
vindication of its policies while BJP spokespersons were still
unwilling to concede defeat though they admitted that the UPA
was ahead in early trends.

Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after
Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year
term with the Congress having nominated him as its candidate
for the top post, first time it had done in its history.

The Congress performance was spectacular in Kerala
where it routed the Left Front and dealt a severe blow to the
Marxists in West Bengal with help from ally Trinamool
Congress.

It also swept Delhi, did exceedingly well in
Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and more than doubled
its tally in UP leading in 20 of the 80 seats there.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), her son
Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee(Jangipur), Industry Minister Kamal Nath
(Chhindwara), Veerappa Moily (Chikaballapur), Jyotiraditya
Scindia (Guna) and Sachin Pilot(Ajmer) were among the
prominent party candidates leading.

BJP leader L K Advani(Gandhinagar), party president
Rajnath Singh(Ghaziabad), Yashwant Sinha(Hazaribagh), Jaswant
Singh (Darjeeling), Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) and Varun Gandhi
(Pilibhit) were leading while his mother Maneka Gandhi was
trailing in Aonla.

Other prominent leaders who were ahead were Sharad Pawar
(Madha), Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, Lalu Yadav
(Pataliputra and Saran), Kalyan Singh (Etah), Ajit Singh
(Baghpat), Sharad Yadav (Madhepura) and Mamata Bannerjee
(Kolkata South). LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan was trailing in
Hajipur.

Surprsingly, the Congress ally DMK put up a good showing
leading in 18 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu while AIADMK,
which had no member in the outgoing House, was ahead in nine
seats.

The Congress was leading in eight seats but its
stalwarts P Chidambaram and Mani Shankar Aiyar were trailing
in Sivaganga and Mayiladuthurai respectively.

DMK candidates M K Azhagiri, son of Chief Minister M
Karunanidhi, and Dayanidhi Maran were leading in Madurai and
Chennai South respectively while Union Minister T R Baalu was
trailing in Sriperumbudur. MDMK leader Vaiko was trailing in
Sivakasi.

The Left parties, which had 59 seats and was instrumental
in UPA coming to power in the last Lok Sabha, fared badly. The
CPI-M, which had 43 seats, was leading only in 16 seats and
the CPI, which had 10, was just ahead in four.

The Fourth Front comprising RJD, SP and LJP also fared
poorly and was ahead only in 29 seats. The SP was leading in
24 seats in UP while RJD, led by Lalu Prasad was ahead in five
seats and Paswan's LJP in two.

The BSP, whose supremo Mayawati fielded 461 candidates
across the country with Prime Ministerial ambitions, also
performed badly with her influence restricted only to UP. Her
party was leading in 25 seats, two of them in Madhya Pradesh,
apart from UP.

The NCP, an ally of Congress, was leading in 11 seats in
Maharashtra.

The BJP performance was good in its strongholds in Madhya
Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Chhatisgarh and
fairly well in Maharashtra in alliance with Shiv Sena. In UP,
once its bastion, the party was nowhere near its expectations.
PTI