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Congress trails after vote in India's software state: poll
BANGALORE, India (AFP) - - India's ruling Congress party trailed its main rival after the first round of balloting in a crucial state election seen as the precursor to a national vote, according to an exit poll Sunday.
The Congress would emerge with just 23 assembly seats out of 89 that were decided in Saturday's balloting in the southern state of Karnataka, showed the poll, conducted by broadcaster NDTV.
Karnataka is home to 60 million people and its capital Bangalore is the hub of India's thriving software industry. With 28 seats in the state assembly, Bangalore was among the southern Karnataka districts that voted Saturday.
The exit poll that covered 7,000 voters showed 31 seats going to the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is making its first solo bid for power in southern India.
The poll gave 30 constituencies to Janata Dal (Secular), the BJP's partner in a coalition that collapsed in November.
The numbers mark an 11-seat increase for the BJP, India's main opposition party, and a loss of five seats for the Congress and six for Janata Dal from the last state assembly election in 2004.
Karnataka, with a 224-member legislature, is the first of a raft of states to choose local governments ahead of national parliamentary elections due before May 2009.
The remaining seats will be filled May 16 and 22 in a three-phase election the Congress is fighting on a promise to rein in prices, provide a stable government and improve the state's shabby infrastructure.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, led the party to national power in 2004 on a pro-poor ticket.
But the party is facing flak from both its allies and the opposition for failing to curb inflation that has shot up to a four-year high, and the election is seen as a gauge of popular discontent.
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