Gandhi heads for election blow in India

Early results on Tuesday from five crucial state elections in India indicated a mid-term blow for the national government and a setback for the fortunes of the Gandhi political dynasty.

The key outcome will be from Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and politically significant state where 200 million people live amid some of the worst poverty on the planet.

Preliminary trends from the election commission showed the Congress party, which runs the federal government, trailing in fourth place in the state and failing to take control in the agricultural heartland of Punjab.

The polls are an important test for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scandal-tainted government ahead of 2014 elections and a first appraisal of Rahul Gandhi, the next in line in the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

"We are disappointed by the trends," Ashwani Kumar, minister of state for science and technology, admitted on NDTV as counting began of nearly 76 million votes cast at 138,000 polling stations in UP.

"These results, if they eventually turn out the way they are now, are a cause for reflection and serious introspection on what went wrong," Kumar added.

Gandhi, a 41-year-old presumed "prime-minister-in-waiting", led campaigning in Uttar Pradesh in a bid to revive Congress - his biggest challenge yet in a state where the party has a dismal record stretching back 22 years.

Success had been seen as likely to hasten his ascent to national leadership at a time when his mother Sonia, the president of the party, has been diagnosed with an undisclosed illness, rumored to be cancer.

Failure will feed the doubters - and there are many - as well as interest in his sister Priyanka, whom some Gandhi loyalists still prefer.

The family has dominated post-independence politics in India, providing three prime ministers.

"As the family has scripted it, this should be the age of Rahul," concluded Outlook, a weekly news magazine, in a front-page article headlined "What if he fails?"

Following a record high turn-out of 59.5 percent, early results also showed a thumping defeat for incumbent Chief Minister Mayawati, a colorful low-caste leader famed for her handbags and taste for expensive statues.

Victory appeared to be likely for the regional Samajwadi Party which is headed by a former wrestler and draws on support from low-caste farmers and Muslims.

Congress also looked likely to fall short of regaining power in Punjab, while the mountainous northern state of Uttarakhand was too close to call. Early results from the holiday playground of Goa were still trickling in.

Impoverished Manipur in the far northeast of India was the only clear bright spot for Congress, where the party looked certain to remain in power.

In New Delhi

The Associated Press