ASIA-PACIFIC Indian voters re-elected governments led by the Congress party back into power in three state elections in a poll seen as an early referendum on the performance of the country’s new central government headed by Manmohan Singh, the prime minister.
Voters in the economically critical state of Maharashtra, which contains the financial capital of Mumbai, backed Congress and its offshoot, the Nationalist Congress Party, dealing a blow to regionalist and Hindu nationalist opposition parties.
