Opposition Parties Win Seats in India

Opposition parties won landslide victories in legislative elections in five regions of India, in what was seen as a public assessment of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s governing alliance, according to results announced Sunday.

With most of the votes counted, the Communists and the party of former actress Jayalalitha Jayaram emerged the big winners in Thursday’s elections in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Pondicherry. Complete results were expected today.

Although the five states are not strongholds of Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the results nonetheless showed that many voters did not approve of his government’s performance.

The party fielded candidates in all the states but won only a handful of seats.

Nearly 65% of 130 million people voted in 823 districts. A total of 5,000 candidates ran in elections, which were marred by violence.

Sixteen people were killed on election day, five of them in West Bengal. The others died in the northeastern state of Assam, where separatist guerrillas called a boycott that was largely ignored.

India’s states enjoy great financial and other autonomy. The federal government sets broad policies and controls foreign affairs, defense, communications and the currency.