The Hindu : Front Page : Congress sweeps Haryana, Bihar verdict deadlocked, Jharkhand on razor's edge

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Monday, Feb 28, 2005

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Front Page

Congress sweeps Haryana, Bihar verdict deadlocked, Jharkhand on razor's edge

By Our New Delhi Bureau

- Graphics by Varghese Kallada

NEW DELHI, FEB. 27. The Congress today swept to power in Haryana with an absolute majority in the 90-member Assembly but all eyes are on Bihar where a hopelessly hung Assembly is the verdict. In Jharkhand, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) alliance emerged as the largest group and within striking distance of government formation, the secular parties are trying hard to cobble together a majority.

However, the arithmetic seems to favour a BJP-led government in Jharkhand where its alliance is just six seats short of a simple majority. In Bihar, the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan with 30-odd seats could hold the key to government formation.

President's rule in Bihar?

Seasoned politicians, including Mr. Paswan, are openly talking of the possibility of a short spell of President's rule in Bihar. Till late this evening, Mr. Paswan was firm that he would support neither the BJP-JD (U) nor the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). However, he is likely to come here within two days to hold talks with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who is said to be trying hard to get the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) parties to do business in Bihar.

The verdict is clear in Haryana with the Congress recording its best-ever performance since the State was carved out of Punjab in the mid-1960s. The landslide win — 67 seats in a House of 90 — brought the party back into office after nine years and also several aspirants for the Chief Minister's chair. The party high command has decided that the Congress Legislature Party will meet in Chandigarh on Tuesday to elect a leader.

Notwithstanding the handsome victory in Haryana, the mood in the Congress camp was rather subdued as it became evident that the UPA had botched its chances both in Bihar and Jharkhand because of the lack of any coherent alliance. In Bihar, the Congress-LJP and the RJD went their separate waysand in neighbouring Jharkhand it was a similar picture of disunity and factional fights. In Bihar, the UPA was done in by Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan although they were both in the UPA and had vowed to keep the BJP out.

No celebrations

The BJP also had nothing much to celebrate as it struggles to hold on to power in Jharkhand. It was routed in Haryana and in Bihar it has less than a fighting chance of forming a government. Some party leaders gave firm instructions to party workers: no firecrackers, no beating of drums and no distribution of sweets.

In Jharkhand, the situation is poised on a razor's edge as both the BJP-JD (U) and the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) combines staked their claim to form the government. Smaller parties and Independent candidates, who have eight seats, could hold the key.

The BJP-JD (U) combine has won 36 seats and BJP leaders expressed the confidence that they could get the support of six MLAs to reach the simple majority mark of 42. The Congress and the JMM secured 26 seats and the alliance is banking on support from the RJD (7), the Forward Bloc (2) and the Nationalist Congress Party (1) to take its tally to 36.

BJP to wait and watch

Senior Congress leaders met informally at Ms. Gandhi's residence while in the BJP office, senior party leaders and those of the JD (U) took stock of the situation in Bihar and Jharkhand. Apparently, no serious overture has yet been made to Mr. Paswan as "there were differences in the JD (U) camp on asking the support of Mr. Paswan," a very senior BJP leader said. "In Bihar, we have adopted a policy of wait and watch," the party general secretary and Bihar `prabhari', Arun Jaitley, said after a meeting of BJP leaders that followed the joint meeting with the JD (U).

In Haryana, the Congress contested alone and won over two-thirds of the 90 Assembly seats. The BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal, contesting separately for the second time, won just two and nine seats. The two parties had parted ways in the Lok Sabha elections last year and between them could win just one out of 10 Lok Sabha seats. The election verdict was almost a repeat of the parliamentary polls.

CPI (ML) improves tally

Among the Left Parties, the CPI (ML) Liberation recorded its highest-ever tally of seven seats in Bihar. It was unable to cash in on the sympathy arising out of the killing of its sitting MLA in Jharkhand with only the slain leader's son managing to win. The Forward Bloc opened its account in Jharkhand winning two seats but the Communist Party of India and the CPI (M) drew a blank. In Bihar, the CPI won three seats but the CPI (M) was unable to win any.

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