The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Guwahati

India's ruling Congress emerged on Friday as the single largest party after elections in Meghalaya in the country's remote northeast, but failed to dislodge their communist rivals in Tripura, officials said. The troubled northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland normally lack political weight nationally, but, with a national poll due by early 2009 and speculation about an early election, the contests are being seen as a test of the ruling party's popularity. Congress was defeated by the rival Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh last December. The northeastern elections were marked by an unusually high voter turnout that analysts linked to increasing political awareness among women and young people.