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A vote for performance, says Krishna

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 2. Elated by the Humnabad by-election result, a hitherto beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, was a picture of a man at ease today as he interacted with journalists in the capital, after attending the ongoing India Today conclave.

Interpreting the Congress victory in Humnabad as a report card on the performance of his Government, Mr. Krishna said the BJP had once again been shown the door by the people of Karnataka. While not ruling out the possibility of the Janata Parivar regrouping in the near future, he said the BJP had been relegated to the third position in the Humnabad Assembly byelection as in the earlier by-polls in the State.

For Mr. Krishna — who has been stumbling from one crisis to another over the past year — the Humnabad verdict comes as a face-saver; particularly as, by his own admission, the performance of his Government had been the party's main poll plank. "Wherever we campaigned in the Assembly segment, we asked the people to evaluate the performance of the Congress Government and endorse it if they were satisfied with it."

As for Himachal Pradesh, the Chief Minister was of the view that the verdict was testimony to the fact that Gujarat was an aberration. "With Hindus making up 98 per cent of the population in the State, the BJP had thought it fertile ground for the Sangh ideology. They have been proved wrong, and the verdict shows that Indians are secular by nature."

PTI reports:

Mr. Krishna today called on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and congratulated her for the party's success in the Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya Assembly elections.

Official sources said he had also briefed Ms. Gandhi on the party's victory in the Himnabad byelection and she had expressed happiness over the Congress wresting the seat from the BJP.

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