India’s governing party loses four key state elections

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s party lost elections in four key states, according to near final results released today, in a potentially destabilising blow to his two-year-old national coalition.

The results from state assembly elections on February 14, 18 and 21 showed Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies being swept from power in three states, and failing to gain the fourth.