WEST GERMANY-Polls and Polarisation

WEST GERMANY Polls and Polarisation Ramesh Jaura STRAUSS wins, Kohl loses and Schmidt remains the Chancellor: this is how results of hotly contested October 3 elections to the West German Bundestag (lower house) can he appropriately summed up. The CSU (Christian Social Union) leader Frantz Josef Strauss's victory is attributed to the strengthening of the Bavarian party which fought the polls in alliance with the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) led by Helmut Kohl, the contender for the Chancellor's post. The CDU and CSU were together able to emerge as the strongest among the parties represented in the West German parliament, gaining 244 seats against the 213 won by the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The SPD lost 17 seats from the 230 which it held in the outgoing parliament. But together with the Free Democrats (FDP)