Congress setback in key India Uttar Pradesh polls

India’s governing Congress party is trailing in fourth place as votes are counted in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.The regional Samajwadi Party is leading in 198 of 400 seats for which counts are available. The state has 403 seats.Congress also looks set to lose in Punjab, while it is engaged in a neck-and-neck contest in Uttarakhand state. The state polls are being seen as a litmus test ahead of the national elections in 2014.They are also seen as a test for the Congress party-led central government, whose credibility has been eroded in recent months over a series of corruption allegations.Manipur and Goa are the other states where counting is going on.Blow to CongressThe most crucial of the state elections has been in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which has more than 200 million people.Uttar Pradesh politics has been dominated in recent years by Mayawati, a low-caste Dalit who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and has had four terms as chief minister.Her main challenger for state power is Mulayam Singh Yadav, who heads the Samajwadi Party. It mainly represents the interests of a caste grouping called the Other Backward Classes.The Samajwadi Party is leading in 198 of 400 seats for which vote counts are available, while the ruling BSP leads in 98 seats.