MUMBAI: The Congress came up trumps in the electoral sweepstakes Thursday retaining power in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh but falling short of absolute majority in Haryana, leaving the main opposition BJP further weakened in the first popularity test since the general elections in May.

In Maharashtra, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bloc inflicted a severe blow to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saffron alliance gaining a clear majority of 144 legislators out of 288 in the Assembly polls. The Congress received 144, NCP 62, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) 14, BJP 47, Shiv Sena 44, the Third Front 10 and others 29.

The MNS engine crushed the Sena tigers in its own hub in Mumbai, where six MNS candidates were elected against four of the Sena. There was another major upset for the Sena when senior Sena leader Ramdas Kadam, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly lost to the NCP candidate Bhaskar Jadhav by a huge margin of 11,000 votes in the Guhagar constituency in Konkan region. A jubilant Chief Minister Ashok Chavan attributed the success of the Congress-NCP alliance to the development and progress policy of the Congress-NCP led Democratic Front government in the state.

Several other prominent leaders to lose the elections included Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former BJP leader Pramod Mahajan who lost from Ghatkopar West in Mumbai. She lost to MNS candidate Ram Kadam. Senior leader Shalinitai Patil, a former revenue minister and widow of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil lost from Koregaon Assembly constituency.

In Arunachal Pradesh, it was a virtual no-contest as the Congress won 40 of 60 seats. It was the electoral showing in Haryana that dulled the Congress’ victory edge with the opposition Indian National Lok Dal surging from nine seats in the 2005 assembly polls to 31 this time, leaving the Congress with 40 of the 90 assembly seats — still the largest single party but well short of the halfway mark. “The election results have shown that the Congress is the only party working for the welfare of the people. For the BJP, it is not just down but almost out of the national political scene,” said party general secretary V. Narayanasamy.

Left in disarray, BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi blamed the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for its defeat in state elections, saying they had become “electronic victory machines” for the Congress. “It is a sponsored victory for the Congress,” Naqvi told reporters. It was left to BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad to concede defeat “with humility.”

— With input from agencies