BJP breaks ahead after a tight race in Chhattisgarh

The ruling BJP was today on course to retaining power in Chhattisgarh opening a sizable gap in the race with its main rival Congress.

Needing 46 seats to secure a simple majority in the 90-member state assembly, BJP led in 52 seats pushing to distant second place Congress which was ahead in 33 seats, as per the official website of the state election commission.

Others, including CPI, BSP, NCP, were ahead in four seats.

If the trends are translated into final results, BJP is expected to retain almost the same number of seats --50--it had won in the previous assembly polls in 2003. Congress had won  37 seats last time.

The BJP forged ahead in the race after being initially locked in a neck and neck race with the Congress.

In the 2003 assembly election, Congress loss was attributed mainly to the NCP factor which led by Vidyacharan Shukla had secured more than 07 percent votes.

BJP had secured 39.26 votes while Congress had been the runner up with securing 36.71 percent votes in the last election.

Shukla is younger brother of the former Maharashtra Chief Minster late Shyamacharan Shukla. Vidayacharan Shukla, however, returned to the paternal party before this assembly election and NCP, which had already lost much of its sting as an independent force in the state also tied up with Congress.

Political pundits say that BSP factor has however damaged the Congress considerably in a number of seats in the tribal states and much of gains expected by the tie up NCP were lost due to BSP capturing good number of votes in Congress strongholds.

Updated at 1210 hrs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to retain power in Chhattisgarh as the party candidates have taken comfortable leads in 50 assembly segments of the 90 seats for which the final trends were available.

According to the final trends available with the state election office, the ruling BJP was set to bag 50 seats in the state while the opposition Congress was leading in 36 assembly segments in the state.

The Community Party of India (CPI) was leading in two seats while Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are expected to bag one seat each.

Surprisingly results are however coming from the Naxal heartland of South Bastar, which comprises three assembly constituencies. Of the three seats, BJP had taken leads in Dantewada and Bijapur assembly segment - the worst Naxal-hit pocket in the state.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate was leading in Konta while Congress heavy weight and Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma was trailing in Dantewada by a margin of about 6,000 votes. The state Congress President, Dhanendra Sahu was also trailing in Abhanpur.

State Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh had taken a comfortable lead of more than 50,000 votes in Rajnandgaon while former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi was leading by a margin of about 25,000 votes.