Election results: Major blow for Congress; Goa goes to BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party's strategic move to woo Christian voters in Goa has worked in its favour.

The results of the Assembly elections in Goa show the BJP has achieved a majority of 21 of 40 which is needed to form the government.

The BJP-MGP combine secured 24 seats, while the ruling Congress party managed to win only 9 seats.

Congress-NCP ministers including Churchill Alemao, Joaquim Alemao, Manohar Asgaonkar, Filip Nery Rodrigues, Jose Philip Dsouza, Nilkant Halarnkar and others lost the polls to the new faces fielded by BJP-MGP.

BJP's Manohar Parrikar now appears set to become the next chief minister. Parrikar, who belongs to the RSS cadre, will become the chief minister for the third time.

Months ahead of the poll, the BJP had spoken of improving its reach to the Christian community by including Catholic candidates. In fact, of the seven Catholic candidates the party fielded, five of them won.

"Taking the minorities along is not an artificial exercise. The Catholics have reposed faith in us and we will respond without hesitation by taking everyone along. This is the victory of the people of Goa," media quoted Parrikar saying.

Francis D'Souza, the BJP candidate from Mapusa, has been elected with the highest margin in the state of over 10,000 votes.

The MGP-BJP combine will today stake claim to form government in Goa.

Besides Goa, the Congress party has suffered a series of defeats in other states such as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Congress won only in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati's party suffered a crushing defeat in the hands of the Samajwadi Party which will now form a government on its own. SP secured 224 of the state's 403 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party won 80 seats; BJP got 47; and Congress took 28.

In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, Congress emerged as the single largest party with 32 members, a notch ahead of the BJP's 31 in the 70-member assembly.

In the state of Punjab, Congress lost to the local Sikh party Shiromani Akali Dal 56-46, with the BJP taking 12.

Rahul Gandhi, who was the face of Congress campaign in Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, meanwhile owned responsibility for the party's poor performance.

"I own the responsibility for this...This is one of my defeats and I take it in my stride," the Congress General Secretary told media on Tuesday.

"I expect to have victories along the way and I expect to have defeats...I take it in my stride. I think, it is a very good lesson for me."

The Congress party has been recently struggling against repeated accusations of graft and incompetence. The 2G scam, Rs 76,000 crore CWG scam, Adarsh housing scam and the illegal mining scam in Goa has led to a huge media outcry and will haunt the party in the future.

The poor show of Congress will now block out its hopes of getting a nominee into Rashtrapati Bhavan after the retirement of President Pratibha Patil in July.