Indian surveys predict Congress setback

In crucial state of Uttar Pradesh:

INDIA: India's ruling Congress party failed to make a breakthrough in recent elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, according to voter surveys published on Sunday. Congress, which has struggled to implement planned reforms since it held onto power in the 2009 general election, campaigned hard in a state that is seen as a key pointer towards the next national poll due by 2014.

Several voter surveys put the Congress party, which leads a fractious coalition in New Delhi, in fourth position after the staggered elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh ended on Saturday.

Congress was expected to increase its strength in the 403-seat state assembly from 22 to about 50, but party organisers had hoped for a far more significant increase.

Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated post-independence Indian politics, spent weeks on the campaign trail in a display widely seen as a test of his prime ministerial potential.

"We all know that exit polls have gone wrong in the past, and this will happen now again," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told the Press Trust of India in response to the surveys.

The official election results, to be released on Tuesday, were also predicted to deliver bad news for Uttar Pradesh's firebrand Chief Minister Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party.

AFP