Congress-I concedes election defeat

INDIA's ruling Congress-I party conceded defeat yesterday as vote counting trends from parliamentary polls showed it was headed…

INDIA's ruling Congress-I party conceded defeat yesterday as vote counting trends from parliamentary polls showed it was headed for electoral disaster.

"The fact is that we are losing. There is no question about it", the Foreign Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the Congress campaign committee, told state run television.

He had said earlier that the Congress would not secure a parliamentary majority from the general elections which ended on Tuesday, but stopped short of admitting defeat. Mr Mukherjee said the party would take stock of the emerging situation and decide on resigning from government when results for all the seats in the 545 member parliament are declared.

A television exit poll projected only 142 seats for the Congress in the Lok Sabha, or lower house, and nearly 200 seats for its main rival, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party).

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Rahul Bedi adds: The Congress-I party has, once again, turned for help to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Italian born widow of the former Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Mr G.K. Moopanar, the former Congress general secretary, and Mr P. Chidambaram, the former federal commerce minister, met Mrs Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday evening, reportedly to enlist her support in removing the Prime Minister, Mr Narasimha Rao, as party leader.

"Mrs Gandhi wants to preserve the Congress party at any cost and will opt for a party leader acceptable to all factions", said a Congress MP.

Most Congress leaders blame Mr Rao for the party's poor electoral performance and want, him to step down as its president, while potential coalition partners from the left of centre National Front have indicated a willingness to form alliances with Congress, but without Mr Rao as its leader.

Mrs Gandhi holds no public office, but in India's byzantine politics, few doubt her ability to alter its course as custodian of the political legacy of the Congress party dominated by the NehruGandhi dynasty which ruled India for nearly 40 years since independence in 1947.

Before Rajiv Gandhi, his mother, Indira, and his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, were prime ministers. And, though Mrs Gandhi, now in her late 40s, keeps her own counsel, the "Sonia factor" has repeatedly surfaced whenever the Congress party has been in crisis after Mr Rao became Prime Minister five years ago.

It began immediately after Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber at an election rally in south India, when she was offered the presidency of the Congress party.

She declined, but ever since has commanded attention in political and public circles, often being referred to as "Mother India".