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Indian Communists were set on to sweep two of five state assembly elections as votes were counted Thursday, while the chief of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, easily won a parliamentary by-election.

Congress did not have much else to cheer about in the mammoth state polls, its biggest electoral test since coming to power two years ago. Although an ally was winning in a southern state and it won the tiny state of Pondicherry, Congress was struggling to retain its majority in the northeastern state of Assam. Losing the southern state of Kerala to the left was considered a blow.

The state vote, however, was not being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two years in power as regional issues dominated campaigns in all states.

Nor were the results expected to drastically change power equations at the centrer where the Communists support the Congress-led coalition government.

"Logically speaking, the outcome of state elections should not have any serious implications for the federal government or for economic reforms," said T.K. Bhaumik, chief economist at Reliance Industries Ltd.

"Nobody had any doubts about the Communists doing well in West Bengal and Kerala. It is not a deviation from the trend."

Communist party chief Prakash Karat said the left would use its mandate to push more "pro-people measures" in government policy but would not destabilize the coalition in New Delhi. "The election results have strengthened the role of the left in national politics," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement.

Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of Congress, won a parliamentary by-election by a margin of more than 400,000 votes from the family borough of Rae Bareli in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. It was roughly twice her winning margin in 2004.

(China Daily May 12, 2006)