NEW DELHI: India's ruling Congress party-led alliance was leading in three state elections on Thursday, local television channels said, a vote that will give more room for the alliance to push economic reforms.

Elections were held last week in the western state of Maharashtra, northern Haryana and the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in polls seen as a major test for the Congress coalition after a strong victory in federal polls in May.

In Maharashtra, the Congress and its Nationalist Congress Party ally were ahead in 134 out of 288 seats against a combination of the Hindu nationalists Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the hardline Hindu party Shiv Sena, which was leading in 104 seats.

The Congress was also leading in Haryana in 41 out of 90 seats and in 21 out of 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh, which analysts said showed the Congress party's growing popularity in the remote northeastern state.

They would now be able to dictate the pace and scope of reform measures such as politically tough stake sales in state-run firms, experts said.

‘This paves the way for economic reforms because there will be less number of dissenting voices and the Congress can now focus on economic reforms as their first priority,’ said D.H. Pai Panandikar of the RPG Foundation, an economic think-tank.

‘The vote shows the Congress is coming on its own and is reinstating itself as the single largest party in India,’ Panandikar added.