Congress leading in Goa polls

Congress party is leading in elections in the western state of Goa after losses in three states this year. The Congress party, seeking to retain power for a second term in Goa, had won 10 seats and was ahead in two of the 28 constituencies for which trends were available on the Election Commission of India's Web site. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had won five seats and was leading in three, the Web site said. Goa's assembly has 40 seats.

A victory may bolster the 122-year-old Congress party after it was ousted in Punjab and Uttarakhand, and fell further behind in the country's most populous province of Uttar Pradesh, as inflation accelerated. Inflation is now at an 8 1/2-month low as higher interest rates have curbed consumer spending and customs duty cuts and the higher import of food increased supplies.

``At best, the result is a pain reliever for the Congress,'' said N. Bhaskara Rao, chairman, Centre for Media Studies, an independent policy group in New Delhi. That's ``because the Goa result will not strengthen Congress in a big way. The representation from Goa in parliament is very small.''

Goa, located south of India's financial capital Mumbai, has only two seats in India's 545-member lower house of parliament.

The Congress party last month failed to gain ground in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends a seventh of all members to parliament. It won 22 of the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, three fewer than it had before, as accelerating inflation reduced the spending power of the people.

Inflation also caused the Congress party to lose power in Uttarakhand and Punjab in February.