17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

MUMBAI, Oct 16: A Congress-led alliance held onto power in India's richest state, Maharashtra, after winning the most seats on Saturday in assembly elections and dealing a humiliating defeat to the opposition Hindu nationalists.

The results were seen as the first verdict on the popularity of the national left-backed Congress government, which took office in May after the shock poll ouster of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition.

Preliminary election commission figures showed the Congress-National Congress Party (NCP) alliance swept 140 of Maharashtra's 288 constituencies while the opposition Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance had won 119. Independents grabbed the remaining 29 seats.

"It's very clear now that Congress-NCP will form the next state government," said political analyst Raju Parulekar.

Party workers and supporters of the Congress-NCP alliance feted the win, bursting crackers in celebration across Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. The winner needed at least 145 of the 288 seats to form a government in Maharashtra, India's second most populous state with nearly 100 million people.-AFP