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Sonia wins by 4 lakh majority

       Rae Bareli: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has won the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha bye-election with a huge margin of over 0.4 million votes, even as her party seemed all set to retain power in Pondicherry, while heading for coalition in Assam. At the end of the 14th round of counting of votes, Gandhi has polled 4,56,318 votes as against Chowdhury's 54,078 votes. The BJP's Vinay Katiyar got 14,641 votes. A total of 5.90 lakh votes were polled in the constituency in the May 8 bye-election.

     The Congress also emerged the single largest party in Assam's 126-member assembly, being ahead in 54 seats as against 22 seats for the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and 49 for "others". Asom is all set for the first ever full-fledged coalition government as early trends pointed to a hung Assembly, leaving both the Congress and the AGP well short of a majority. A confident Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has admitted that a coalition government would come to power and the Congress would lead the same. He himself has taken unassailable lead at his home constituency of Titabor. The AGP has been having a mix of results. If injured AGP leader Pradeep Hazarika, Brindabon Goswami and Chandra Mohan Patowary are leading, Jagadish Bhuyan is losing. The Congress and its allies appeared set to form government in Pondicherry, where they were ahead in 20 seats of the 30-member assembly.

Sonia says 'No' to Prime Ministership
by Pankaj Yadav

       New Delhi: Congress president and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today rejected the idea that came from a section of her party MPs that she should accept the post of Prime Minister this time, after registering a record-breaking win in the Rae Bareli by poll. "No, not at all..These things should not happen in the party," she said while responding to a journalist's question if she would accept the demand of her party men this time. Earlier, around 25 party MPs led by Ajit Jogi had written a letter to Sonia requesting her to accept the post of Prime Minister. Speculations have been rife in the Capital that the May 19, 2004, scene at Parliament's Ashoka Hall (when Congress men clamoured that Sonia should be made the PM) would be repeated this time too. A section of the media had been reporting that senior leaders have been holding talks of once again asking Sonia to hold the fort this time. Sonia, however, ducked another question whether she would once again hold the post of NAC (National Advisory Council) chief. "Right now, I can't say anything about this," she said. The post of NAC head had triggered a controversy nearly a month ago, which eventually forced Sonia to resign both as Lok Sabha MP and NAC chief, after the Opposition alleged that Sonia was holding an office of profit.

PM: A victory for secular forces

      New Delhi: Referring to the victory of United Progressive Alliance coalition in the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today also called this a victory of secular forces in the country. "Elections this time bring the victory for secular forces and this is victory for the UPA," Singh said here as poll results indicated a win for Congress party in Asom and coalition partners DMK and Left in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, respectively. He said that he had congratulated Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Tarun Gogoi, and DMK chief M Karunanidhi for their victory. Dr. Singh will also congratulate Congress party president Sonia Gandhi for her record victory in Rae Bareli Lok Sabha by- election. She has won with a huge margin of over 0.4 million votes.

Left to increase pressure on UPA

      New Delhi: Upbeat over its poll successes in West Bengal and Kerala, an aggressive CPI(M) on Thursday said it will increase pressure on the ruling UPA coalition at the Centre, which it supports from outside, to implement the policies mentioned in the Common Minimum Programme. Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi that they will have to increase pressure and influence on the UPA alliance. He said that it is natural, that it is bound to increase after the elections results, but only for the better. He said the victory was a result of the faith of the people in the party and in its policies and principles.

    Accusing the Election Commission of adopting "double standards" in West Bengal by ordering a five-phase poll, Yechury said that the thumping victory was a befitting reply by the people in West Bengal. "All this propaganda that there has been scientific rigging and there is some sort of manipulation going on in CPM, all of them have to bite the dust. Now we have cooperated and obliged the Election Commission to whatever extent it will. Whatever we say always, we are saying that again and this is what has been proved that, if you don't trust the police in Bengal, you bring police from outside, if you don't trust the officers in Bengal, you bring the officers from outside, but as long as you don't bring voters from outside, Left Front cannot be defeated," he said.

Jayalalithaa resigns as TN Chief Minister

     Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa resigned on Thursday following the defeat of her ruling party in the state Assembly elections. Sources close to state Governor S S Barnala said that they have received the letter of resignation, which was sent through Information Technology Minister, D Jayakumar. The resignation came soon after the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance(DPA) gained an absolute majority in the 234- member Tamil Nadu Assembly, winning 126 seats of the 169 results declared so far. As the DPA coasted to victory, DMK president M Karunanidhi said the decisive trends of the Assembly polls had once again put the responsibility of ensuring the rule of law on the DMK and the DPA, besides pursuing welfare and development policies. The message of the election was that people had voted to harvest all that was good, and discard that which was not, he said. On the issue of a police FIR registered against Dr Anbumani Ramadoss and Dr S Ramadoss of PMK in connection with a political murder, he said a representation had been made to the Governor, and any further steps could be considered only after looking at the petition's fate.

Mukherjee resigns as Bengal Congress chief

     New Delhi: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee resigned as the president of the West Bengal Congress, citing the poor performance of the party in the state Assembly elections. "The election results of West Bengal are declared. The performance of Congress is extremely poor. I own the responsibility and tender my resignation from the office of president, WBPCC with immediate effect," Mukherjee said in his letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Mukherjee's resignation came immediately after the final results were declared. With the Left Front securing 235 seats, the Congress 21 seats and others 37 seats, the political scenario became clear. The Left, will resume charge of the administration for a record seventh consecutive term. The Communists have not been defeated since 1977.

Left for outside support to DPA

      New Delhi: CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here on Thursday that the Left would probably extend outside support to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. "We will soon write a letter to the (Tamil Nadu) Governor (Surjit Singh Barnala) extending support to the DMK to form government," Karat said, clearly indicating the Left's intention not to the join state government. "We will support the government," added CPI National Secretary, D Raja. The CPI(M) has won nine seats in the assembly polls and the CPI has won five. Karat said that the people of Tamil Nadu have voted for a new regime, as the performance of the previous one was below par. Raja said that the AIADMK's performance was dismal.