05-08-2006, 10:59 PM
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--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> Elections end, Left to win, Sonia may be hit
Source: IANS.
New Delhi, May 8 :India's staggered assembly elections ended Monday with predictions of a record-making Left sweep in West Bengal and a low turnout possibly hitting Congress president Sonia Gandhi's bid to re-enter parliament from Rae Bareli with a whopping majority.
The one-day balloting in Tamil Nadu and the final rounds in West Bengal and Pondicherry marked the end of a month-long electoral exercise whose outcome may cast a shadow on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government if the Congress party loses Assam besides suffering an expected rout in Kerala.
Over 60 percent of the electorate voted in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and West Bengal despite a scorching heat. But in Rae Bareli, less than 45 percent of 1.3 million voters exercised their franchise, dealing a blow to Gandhi's chances of bettering her previous winning margin of 250,000 votes.
Congress leaders in Rae Bareli, a farming region 700 km east of here in Uttar Pradesh, could not hide their disappointment and claimed that the low voting was also because Gandhi faced no formidable opponent.
Two final exit polls in West Bengal predicted an easy win for the Left Front, which has ruled the state since June 1977, saying it would get 195-210 seats in the 294-member assembly.
The Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were tipped to get 44-56 seats while the Congress would settle for 30-35 seats.
"We will win elections in West Bengal for a record seventh time and we also expect a big victory for the LDF (Left Democratic Front) in Kerala," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat told IANS here. "Both these states will have Left-led governments."
And he added: "We are confident these results will strengthen the Left at the national level."
The six West Bengal which went to the polls Monday accounted for 49 seats - 12 in Jalpaiguri, nine in Cooch Behar, five in Darjeeling, seven in Uttar Dinajpur, five in Dakshin Dinajpur and 11 in Malda. There were 306 candidates in the final round.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> Elections end, Left to win, Sonia may be hit Source: IANS.
New Delhi, May 8 :India's staggered assembly elections ended Monday with predictions of a record-making Left sweep in West Bengal and a low turnout possibly hitting Congress president Sonia Gandhi's bid to re-enter parliament from Rae Bareli with a whopping majority.
The one-day balloting in Tamil Nadu and the final rounds in West Bengal and Pondicherry marked the end of a month-long electoral exercise whose outcome may cast a shadow on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government if the Congress party loses Assam besides suffering an expected rout in Kerala.
Over 60 percent of the electorate voted in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and West Bengal despite a scorching heat. But in Rae Bareli, less than 45 percent of 1.3 million voters exercised their franchise, dealing a blow to Gandhi's chances of bettering her previous winning margin of 250,000 votes.
Congress leaders in Rae Bareli, a farming region 700 km east of here in Uttar Pradesh, could not hide their disappointment and claimed that the low voting was also because Gandhi faced no formidable opponent.
Two final exit polls in West Bengal predicted an easy win for the Left Front, which has ruled the state since June 1977, saying it would get 195-210 seats in the 294-member assembly.
The Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were tipped to get 44-56 seats while the Congress would settle for 30-35 seats.
"We will win elections in West Bengal for a record seventh time and we also expect a big victory for the LDF (Left Democratic Front) in Kerala," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat told IANS here. "Both these states will have Left-led governments."
And he added: "We are confident these results will strengthen the Left at the national level."
The six West Bengal which went to the polls Monday accounted for 49 seats - 12 in Jalpaiguri, nine in Cooch Behar, five in Darjeeling, seven in Uttar Dinajpur, five in Dakshin Dinajpur and 11 in Malda. There were 306 candidates in the final round.