Assembly Polls: Cong loses K'taka, BJP-BJD retains Orissa
In Karnataka, Congress has been crushed to defeat, the BJD-BJP is inching towards a majority in Orissa.
The assembly elections have thrown up big surprises this time. While in Karnataka, the ruling Congress has been crushed to defeat, the ruling BJD-BJP is inching towards a majority in Orissa. In Sikkim too, the ruling coalition is set to retain power.

Tottering under the onslaught of BJP and JD(S), the ruling Congress in Karnataka on Thursday faced a rout in the Assembly polls, prompting Chief Minister S M Krishna to resign, as the prospect of a hung assembly loomed large on the state.
With results for 84 of the 224 seats declared so far, the BJP-JD(U) combine had bagged 30 seats, followed by the Congress 29 and JD(S) led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda 20 in a fierce neck and neck tri-lateral contest. Others secured five seats.
As defeat stared at his face, Krishna drove to Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation to Governor T N Chaturvedi, meeting a similar fate as his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu but in a more merciful way.
With the results and trends showing a fractured verdict, a big question mark is put on the formation of the next government.The Congress contested on its own, while the BJP had alliance with its national partner JD(U) and JD(S) with Communists.
The prospects of Congress and JD(S) coming together to make up the required numbers were hotly debated but JD(S) said it would hold a meeting of its party legislators here tomorrow.
Several of state ministers, including Kagodu Thimappa, Suman Vasanth, Vasanth Salian and D B Chandregowda, fell by the wayside in what was attributed to the anti-incumbency coupled with the Vajpayee factor whose impact was quite strong in Karnataka.
BJD-BJP inching towards majority in Orissa
The BJD-BJP combine was inching towards securing a majority in the Orissa assembly establishing leads in 78 of the 147 seats in the house despite the Congress-led alliance substantially improving their position.
Congress and its allies OGP, CPI, CPI-M and JMM were ahead in 58 seats according to trends available till 1200 hours.
BJD candidates were leading in 51 seats while its electoral ally BJP was ahead in 27 constituencies.
Trends indicated that the BJD-BJP combine was conceding substantial ground to the congress-led alliance in the state.
Congress candidates were leading in 49 constituencies while its allies JMM nominees were ahead in four followed by OGP and CPI-two each and CPI-M-one seat. Independents were leading in 10 seats.
In the last assembly elections, the BJD had won 68 seats while the BJP and Congress had 38 and 25 seats respectively.
Sikkim Democratic Front set for victory
The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) was all set for a massive victory in the assembly elections as counting of votes progressed Thursday in the Himalayan state. According to latest trends, the SDF was leading in majority of the seats.
The SDF had already won four seats unopposed. Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said that it testified that the party was leading the state in the right direction for the last decade.
Declaring that the people's mandate was the victory of the vision and ideology of the SDF, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said "Now that we are voted back to power, our responsibilities increased."
"We will make Sikkim a model state now," said the president of the SDF which won all the 25 declared seats, out of the total 32 seats of the assembly. In all those 25 constituencies, Congress came second.
The result showed that the people of Sikkim rejected the 'casteist and opportunistic forces', the chief minister said.