2NDLD POLL 2

The Congress-NCP victory led to jockeying for Chief
Ministership in the Congress with Union Minister Vilasrao
Deshmukh appearing to throw his hat in the ring. However, he
and incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said it was for the
party High Command and MLAs to decide.
A feeble attempt by NCP leader and Deputy Chief
Minister Chagan Bhujbal for rotation of Chief Minister's post
was dismissed by his party chief Sharad Pawar, who said the
Congress will decide who will be its chief minister.
In the other camp, the BJP accepted defeat and blamed
the split in Shiv Sena for the erosion of the saffron vote
bank. The Shiv Sena said it would analyse factors that led to
the defeat before blaming anyone.
Chavan won from Bhokar in Nanded district, while
several of his cabinet colleagues won but seven ministers
lost. President Pratibha Patil's son Rajendra Singh Shekhawat
won from Amravati in a see-saw battle with Congress rebel
Sunil Deshmukh.
The surprise results in Haryana showed that the
Congress attempts to cash in on its spectacular performance in
Lok Sabha elections when it won 9 of the 10 seats did not
fructify. Congress tally was reduced from 67 in 2005 to 40
today. The party advanced the elections by seven months.
The opposition INLD led by Om Prakash Chautala put up
a good showing winning 31 seats compared to nine it had in the
dissolved Assembly. (MORE) PTI