Bavarian voters made political history yesterday when they robbed the Christian Social Union, sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, of its -ruling majority for the first time in 46 years.

Exit polls put the CSU, which has ruled the affluent southern state for more than four decades, on 43 per cent of the vote, its lowest result since 1954. Such an outcome would leave the CSU well short of the 91 seats needed for a majority in the regional parliament, forcing it to form its first coalition since 1962.