India’s ruling Congress party and its famed Gandhi political dynasty suffered a stinging election setback yesterday in crucial state polls.

Figures showed Congress, which runs the federal government in New Delhi, winning clearly in only one of five states and suffering a landslide defeat in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s most populous and politically significant state.

The polls were a mid-term popularity test for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scandal-tainted government ahead of 2014 elections, and were a first appraisal of Rahul Gandhi, the next in line in India’s top political family.

“I stood in front, so it is my responsibility,” 41-year-old Gandhi told reporters as he conceded defeat. “All of us in the Congress party fought. We fought well but the result which came was not so good.”

Mr Gandhi, a presumed prime-minister-in-waiting, led campaigning in Uttar Pradesh in a bid to revive Congress – his biggest challenge yet in a state where the party has a dismal record stretching back 22 years.

With all but a handful of results confirmed, Congress had won just 28 out of 403 seats, a trouncing that represented only a small increase on their miserly tally of 2007 despite Mr Gandhi’s tireless work at public rallies.