Assembly election results: down to the wire in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: The BJP won epic in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It landed Delhi. But in Chhattisgarh, it's still too close to call.

The party and Chief Minister Raman Singh are hoping for a third straight term.

Just before noon, the Congress was ahead in 48 of the state's 90 constituencies. The BJP was at 41. Mr Singh was ahead in his constituency.

In the Naxal-affected region of south Chhattisgarh, including the Bastar belt, the BJP  appears to have lose ground to the Congress. In May,  more than 25 people, many of them Congress leaders, were killed in a Naxal attack in this part of the state.

Voters seem to have punished the BJP government for failing to prevent that massacare.

The BJP had 50 seats against the 38 seats of the Congress in the outgoing assembly.

The Congress' Moti Lal Vora had said yesterday that his party expected a "sympathy vote" in the state. The BJP's Najma Heptullah said today that this explained the setback to Raman Singh, widely seen as a chief minster who has done well for the state.   

The turnout of voters was a record 75 percent in the two-phase polls.