14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

NEW DELHI, May 13: Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha lost his seat in parliament on Thursday amid a rout for his Hindu nationalist government, election officials said.

Mr Sinha, a member of outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, lost to Bhubaneswar Prasad Mehta of the Communist Party of India from Hazaribagh in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Mr Sinha, 66, was appointed foreign minister in July 2002 when he swapped the finance portfolio with Jaswant Singh. He has been active in Vajpayee's initiatives to make peace with Pakistan and increase India's clout in the world, including through warmer ties with the United States.

A former university professor, Mr Sinha served as a diplomat in Germany from 1971 to 1974 before becoming a civil servant in India. He was first elected from Hazaribagh in the 1998 parliamentary polls and re-elected in 1999. -AFP