NEW DELHI, Dec 8: India’s ruling Congress party scored a stunning victory on Monday over the rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party in key state polls seen as the semi-final before the general elections due by April.

The Congress retained the Delhi assembly for a third consecutive term and snatched Rajasthan from the BJP, thus delivering a major blow to jingoism fanned by Hindu extremists and their upper class supporters in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. The BJP retained Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh but even here the Congress made substantive gains over it previous tally.

The outcome is expected to ease tensions with Pakistan with the realisation that the verdict was for peace as well as a signal to fight terrorism unitedly. The BJP had claimed the Mumbai attacks would help its muscle-flexing image, but the verdict proved just the opposite. With anti-Pakistan hawks licking their wounds the pressure may ease on the Congress to do something reckless to demonstrate its will to fight terrorism. With Pakistan making efforts to hunt Mumbai’s suspected masterminds a more considered and less shrill Indian policy can be expected to give way to recent war drums that dominated the media here.

With a remarkably mature display of democratic choice by the voters, more coordinated effort with Pakistan to jointly isolate and fight terrorists can be expected, analysts say.

The election results have shored up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s image as a calm manager of crisis. The Congress retained power for a record third five-year term in Delhi, wrested Mizoram and ousted the BJP in Rajasthan while losing to it decisively in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in assembly elections that were the last popularity test ahead of the Lok Sabha battle.

Even as BJP supporters celebrated in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, party leaders admitted that the results were disappointing, especially the rout in Delhi where they had been confident of ending 10 years of Congress rule, more so since voting in all states barring Chhattisgarh took place in the shadow of the Mumbai terror carnage. The outcome of the staggered elections between November 14 and December 4 sparked off speculation about early Lok Sabha elections, but Digvijay Singh of the Congress argued against it.

BJP sources admitted that if they had won even three of the four northern states, they would have pressed for early parliamentary polls. The Congress’ most exciting victory came in Delhi where Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, 70, crushed the BJP, winning 40 seats in the 70-member house.