India's ruling Congress sees gains in state polls

Vote counting was underway Friday in five Indian states, with the ruling Congress party expected to make key gains despite a series of damaging corruption scandals.

One of the most eagerly awaited results was in the largest of the five states, West Bengal, where the world's longest-serving, democratically elected Communist government was tipped to lose power after 34 years.

Early returns showed Congress running neck-and-neck with the incumbent Communist government in the southern state of Kerala, and it was also ahead in the northeastern state of Assam.

In West Bengal, Congress was in alliance with the Trinamool Congress of firebrand politician Mamata Banerjee which, according to all opinion polls, was expected to oust the Communist-led Left Front in a landslide.

With no party holding an overall majority in India's federal parliament, state elections play a crucial role in shifting the national power balance, as the main parties seek to maintain or forge regional alliances.

The state polls have been seen as a mini-referendum on the popularity of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 78, and his government.

If the poll predictions prove accurate, the results would provide a major boost to the Congress party which has spent much of the last year on the defensive over major fraud and graft allegations.

But it looked set to lose a key ally in the southern state of Tamil Nadu where the incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was expected to lose to another regional party led by the former movie star J. Jayalalithaa.

The final vote was in the tiny union territory of Pondicherry where exit polls said the race was too close to call.

If Banerjee's Trinamool does sweep to power in West Bengal as expected, it will mark the end of an era in modern Indian politics.

The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had, until recently, won every election in the eastern state since 1977.

But straight successive losses in council, parliamentary and municipal polls have left the communists struggling for survival.

One opinion poll forecast the Trinamool alliance would win 215 of the 294 state assembly seats while the communists would get just 74 -- a result that would effectively consign the once-powerful Marxists to the political wilderness.

The anti-incumbency mood in West Bengal has been fuelled by anger among farmers over being forced to sell fertile land holdings under a government job-creation drive to lure industry.

AFP