NEW DELHI: India’s venerable Congress party, which led the country to independence and dominated it politically for the most of the last century, is now firmly on the comeback trail through the provinces.

In elections for provincial elections staggered over the last fortnight, the opposition Congress party managed to win northern Punjab, the Himalayan state of Uttaranchal and eastern Manipur. It also emerged as a key player in Uttar Pradesh, which returned a fractured verdict when final results were available Monday.

This would mean that the Congress party controls many more provinces than does its main rival — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which rules the centre through a multi-party coalition consisting mostly of regional parties.

Key states that the Congress party now rules include Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Assam.

The Congress can also count on close regional allies such as the AIADMK party that rules southern Tamil Nadu, the powerful Left Front in West Bengal and the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar. It is the main opposition in all the states where regional allies aligned to the BJP are in power.

Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of the Congress party, and heir to the political legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, is already the leader of the opposition in national Parliament and vocal spokeswoman for secular groups opposed to the pro-Hindu BJP.

Gandhi, who personally campaigned in Uttar Pradesh, failed to revive her party’s fortunes in India’s largest state. But she made serious dents in the BJP’s attempt to focus the election on the issue of terrorism and the introduction in the state of anti-terrorist laws which are unpopular with the Muslim minority.

Her strong denouncement of the BJP’s attempt to whip up Hindu sentiments may have contributed to the victory of the regional Samajwadi Party as the single biggest party with which an alliance to rule Uttar Pradesh is now being negotiated.

The monolithic Congress party has been losing its virtual monopoly on power thanks to the rise of regional parties such as the Asom Gana Parishad (Assam People’s Party), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that rules southern Andhra Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, and AIADMK and DMK (both espousing the cause of ethnic Dravidians).—Dawn/InterPress Service.