Assembly polls: SP sweeps UP, setbacks Congress, BJP

Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on Tuesday swept to power jolting Congress party and the BJP in UP Assembly polls, the results of which are a setback to Rahul Gandhi, who acknowledged the "defeat".

In a surprisingly comfortable victory that created history, the Akali-BJP combine retained power in Punjab, Congress lost Goa to BJP but retained Manipur while it was a close call in Uttarakhand where Congress emerged as the single largest party with 32 seats, one seat ahead of ruling BJP's 31 in the 70-member House.

SP dethroned BSP leader Mayawati by getting an absolute majority  by comfortably crossing the required 202-mark in the 403-member House. The party bagged 224 seats, the third time a party won majority on its own in the state in two decades.

Mayawati was relegated to a distant second position ending up with 80 seats, down 126 seats from the 206 it had secured in the previous poll in 2007.

The Congress, which was hoping to do well after Rahul Gandhi's extensive campaigning in 207 constituencies, improved its previous tally of 22 seats by winning 28 seats. The BJP, which had 51 seats last time, has won 47.

41-year-old Gandhi, who had led an aggressive campaign, was quick to acknowledge the defeat and owned responsibility for the party's dismal performance which he termed as a "very good lesson" for him.

"I own the responsibility for this.  This is one of my defeats and I take it in my stride," he told reporters in Delhi.

There was good news though for the Congress from Manipur where it created history by capturing power for the third successive term with a clear majority in the 60-member Assembly.

The Congress lost power in the 40-member Goa Assembly by winning only 9 seats against 21 by the BJP.

BJP, which was exulting in the morning when initial trends showed it in the second place in UP, piped down later to admit that it had not done well in the key state.

The party also lost seven seats in Punjab by winning only 12 against 19 in 2007 but was back in power riding piggyback on a strong performance by the Akali Dal which won 56 to gain an absolute majority in the 117-member House. Congress won 46.

BJP was also struggling to retain power in Uttarakhand and its Chief Minister BC Khanduri lost his own seat.

But BJP sought to deflect attention from its setback by painting the results as a massive vote against Congress although some of its leaders called for introspection.