Election, Resignation Deal Setbacks to Gandhi Party

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi suffered a double blow Sunday, with his Congress-I Party heading for a humiliating electoral defeat in south India and a key political lieutenant forced to resign.

The regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, known as the DMK, appeared certain to win an absolute majority in the Tamil Nadu state assembly after the election Saturday.

“We have won the election. That is how it looks,” party leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi told reporters as thousands of jubilant supporters besieged his headquarters in Madras.

Holds Wide Lead

With more than half the ballots counted, the DMK or its allies led in 151 of the 232 constituencies, the government election agency reported.

The Congress-I Party was ahead in 35 districts.

Gandhi’s problems were compounded when the party leadership asked the Congress-I chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state, Arjun Singh, to resign after a court ordered an inquiry into a lottery with which his family is connected.

Gandhi, whose government has been battered by corruption charges in the last year, sent Singh to Madhya Pradesh in central India last year to rebuild the Congress-I’s fortunes before national elections.

Singh denied in his resignation statement that he had done any wrong.