12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

NEW DELHI, May 11: The mascot of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's "India Shining" election campaign, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, was comprehensively routed on Tuesday in state polls that were held together with the parliamentary elections there.

The unexpectedly emphatic win for the opposition Congress Party and its regional ally by a two-thirds majority has rocked Mr Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He went into a huddle with senior aides to surmise the parliamentary results due on Thursday.

"We may see an anti-incumbency in a much more emphatic manner", Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh told a TV channel. He was referring to pre-poll predictions that the parliamentary election could go any way, either narrowly assisting Mr Vajpayee and his coalition partners or putting him in a clear minority.

The fate of Mr Naidu, who is considered the most bullish of the pro-economic reforms politicians, is being seen as an indictment of the NDA's pro-rich policies. His Telugu Desam Party got only 49 seats in the 294-member assembly. The Congress-led coalition won its landslide, partly on the promise of free electricity to farmers.

India's two main communist parties won 15 seats in Andhra Pradesh against their three members five years ago. The BJP could scratch up two seats against the 12 it held after the last state polls.

What is even more daunting for the pro-business lobbies, reflected in the heavy fall in the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex, that Mr Naidu's fall may be a pointer to the NDA's fate nation-wide.

Prospects of a hung Parliament and the rout in Andhra Pradesh sent the stock market into a tailspin leading to erosion of over Rs545,000 million of wealth as virtually all the shares took a plunge. The benchmark index crashed by 229.94 points at the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at five-month low at 5325.90.