Resist compositions and patterning process

A resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units of the general formula (1) and a polymer comprising recurring units of the general formula (2):

• wherein R1 and R2 each are hydrogen or an acid labile group, letters a and b are numbers satisfying 0≦a≦1, 0≦b≦1 and 0.3≦a+b≦1, R3 is an acid labile group, R4 and R5 are each independently hydrogen, an alkyl group of 1 to 4 carbon atoms which may be substituted with a fluorine atom, cyano group or hydroxy group, or an acid labile group, R6 is hydrogen, an alkyl group of 1 to 4 carbon atoms which may be substituted with a fluorine atom, cyano group or hydroxy group, or an acid labile group, X1 is a single bond, methylene group or ethylene group, letters c, d, e and f are numbers satisfying 0≦c<0.8, 0<d<0.8, 0<c+d<0.8, 0≦e<0.8, 0≦f<0.8, 0<e+f<0.8, and 0.5≦c+d+e+f≦1.