Communists sweep elections in Indian states

Dubai: The red flag swamped two out of five Indian states yesterday as the Marxists swept to victory in the assembly elections, putting to shade the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi's own record margin in a parliamentary by-election.

The Communists' seventh successive poll success in the eastern state of West Bengal and the Congress rout in Kerala is set to change power equations at the centre where Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, supported by the Left, has been bitterly attacked by their ally over its economic reforms and ties with the United States.

Communists hosted feasts in front of huge TV screens, waving red flags with their faces painted red as the sheer scale of the victory sunk in.

In West Bengal, the Left won 235 of the 294 seats in the Marxist stronghold where they have been in power for 29 consecutive years, giving them the longest-serving elected Communist government in the world.

In Kerala where the Left and the Congress are political foes a Marxist-led coalition wrested power, grabbing 98 of 140 assembly seats, poll officials said. The Congress-led front won only 42 seats.

Communist leaders made no secret of their resolve to exert pressure on the federal government. Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said: "The results will definitely strengthen the Left in the country."

The Congress, facing its biggest electoral test since coming to power two years ago, struggled to retain its majority in the northeastern state of Assam where neither it with 45 seats, nor the opposition Asom Gana Parishad with 24 seats, were comfortably home. Together, other parties and independents have a tally of 48 in the 125-seat Assembly.

The Congress must forge a coalition in the former French enclave of Pondi-cherry where it had a majority. It's only in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, that the Congress can find comfort as a junior partner in a coalition government headed by its ally, the regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party which unseated film-star-turned chief minister Jayalalitha Jayaram. But even in that state, the Left is part of the winning combination led by Muthuvel Karunanidhi's DMK.

Communist party chief Prakash Karat tempered the Left excitement over dictating policy at the centre when he said his party would not destabilise the coalition in Delhi.

Manmohan Singh, in an apparent bid to humour his Communist allies, said the poll results were a "victory for secular forces." Other Congress officials put up a brave face. "I think we are as much victors as the Left is," Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said. "So why assume that the Left will be unreasonable in victory?"

Sonia won her parliamentary by-election from Rae Bareilly by a margin of more than 417,800 votes. Her nearest rival took just 57,000 votes.