SURREY, B.C. — The B.C. NDP won an important byelection Thursday, increasing the party's seats in the legislature by 50 per cent and ballooning their confidence in anticipation of next spring's provincial election.

"This byelection indicates the rebirth of the NDP," said a jubilant Joy MacPhail, one of the party's two MLAs. "People declared us dead two or three years ago. We are back, fighting and fit." Cheering party supporters gobbled Indian sweets as they watched results roll in. From the beginning, the numbers had candidate Jagrup Brar in the lead.

Music blared and balloons swayed in the crush of volunteers.

"The people of this riding sent a clear message to (Premier) Gordon Campbell," said Brar.

"It's a warning that three and a half years of Gordon Campbell's mismanagement, scandals, cuts and broken promises have come home to roost here in one of Gordon Campbell's strongest ridings."

It's difficult to overstate the importance of the victory for the party.

The NDP -- which had governed British Columbia from 1991 to 2001 -- were all but wiped out in the 2001 provincial election, winning only two seats to the Liberals' 77.

This was the first byelection since the Liberals took office.

The Surrey-Panorama Ridge seat, in a growing suburb southeast of Vancouver with a significant Indo-Canadian population, was vacated after Gulzar Cheema left to run unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals.

Cheema had won the seat with 60 per cent of the vote, compared to the NDP candidate's 20 per cent.

The numbers neatly mirrored the results province-wide: The Liberals won the election with 58 per cent of the vote, compared to the NDP's 22 per cent.

"This will be a huge reversal for the Liberals," MacPhail said.

Liberal supporters attempted to make the best of the situation by looking forward, chanting "four more years."

But Campbell said the byelection offers some important lessons.

"It's important for us to understand the election in May is going to be a tough fought election," he said.

"For anyone who underestimates the challenge ahead of us -- don't."

He said he looked forward to Mary Polak's candidacy in May.

Polak had an uphill battle from the start.

Aside from political issues, she was running against history and a general feeling that the results of the last provincial election left a legislature too lopsided for many people's comfort.

A B.C. government hasn't won a byelection since 1981.

As well, the Liberals spent the first three years of their mandate undertaking tough cost-cutting measures that have raised the ire of many British Columbians, especially the province's notoriously vocal unions.

In September, the Liberals announced the tough times were over. The province is expecting a $1 billion surplus for the current fiscal year.

Political analyst Norman Ruff cautioned against using the byelection as a crystal ball into the May 17 provincial election.

"Byelections are stand-alone events," he said.

Local candidates and issues matter much more than they do during a general election.

"May 2005 is going to be a different dynamic. There's going to be a budget coming down and the campaign will be run around quite different things to the byelection."

But Ruff, a University of Victoria political scientist who has had a keen eye on B.C. politics for years, said the results surprised him.

The Liberals dumped huge resources into the race. Campbell and several cabinet ministers attended a rally in the riding last weekend.

"This is an enormous confidence builder for the NDP and a bit of a blunder for the Liberals," Ruff said.

"They (the Liberals) can't dine out on the dismal decade anymore."

Jenny Kwan, the other NDP MLA in the legislature, said Brar's victory will also have some practical advantages. He'll be one more person to help divide legislative duties with.

Brar, who has run a small business teaching new entrepreneurs to launch successful small businesses, will become the party's critic on economic issues, she said.

Brar came to British Columbia 10 years ago from Winnipeg. Before that, he was educated in India and played on India's national basketball team.

The final vote results had Brar winning 6,662 votes to Polak's 4,160.

Green Party leader Adriane Carr, who joined the byelection race in an effort to boost her party's profile, got 1,052 votes.

Carr chose to run in the byelection, despite having run in the last provincial election on the Sunshine Coast, where she has lived for years.

That prompted the NDP and others to accuse her of being a parachute candidate.