Raipur: BJP today scored a hat-trick of wins in Chhattisgarh Assembly elections winning 47 of 90 seats, thwarting Congress' bid to wrest power after a decade.
The saffron party is ahead in another two seats, while Congress has pocketed 39 and is leading in none.
Bahujan Samaj Party and an Independent have won a seat each.
Despite a tangible sympathy factor for the Congress in the wake of the massacre of 27 of its leaders and workers, including state party chief Nand Kumar Patel and tribal strongman Mahendra Karma, it failed to capitalise on it beyond the tribal Bastar region.
Of the 12 seats in Bastar, Congress won eight.
BJP had secured 11 of these seats in 2008.
Kawasi Lakhma, the sole Congress MLA from Bastar in the last elections and one of the survivors of the Darbha massacre retained his seat, while Mahendra Karma's wife Devti wrested Dantewada from BJP.
The defeat of the Leader of Opposition, prominent tribal leaders and several sitting MLAs in the plains rocked the Congress boat.
Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey, a six-time MLA from Saja, lost.
Prominent tribal leader Rampukar Singh, a 7-term MLA from Patthalgaon, also lost and so did Congress stalwart and a tribal leader Bodhram Kanwar.
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