Six persons were killed and scores injured in scattered incidents of violence as India’s mammoth parliamentary election exercise drew to an end on Monday with the fifth and last round of voting.
Elections were held on Monday in 182 constituencies in 16 states and federally administered territories across the country.
The final count by exit polls, not always reliable in the past, predicted that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies would fall just a few seats short of a simple majority of 272 in the 543-member Parliament.
Senior leaders of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as well as the opposition Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, held meetings in the national capital, Delhi, to discuss possible post-poll strategies.
India’s Independent Election Commission held elections in five phases — on April 20, 22, 26, May 5 and May 10 — to accommodate the mammoth electorate.
Votes will be counted on May 13 and the results will be announced the same day.
The voter turnout in 182 constituencies that went to elections on Monday averaged 50% to 55%. It ranged from 44% in Jammu and Kashmir to 65% to 70% in West Bengal.
Deputy election commissioner AN Jha said these were provisional figures that would be updated as information from remote areas came in.
Elections this year were held totally on electronic voting machines.
About 38 people were killed and more than 200 injured in violence during the five polling days.
During Monday’s voting, three persons were reported killed in clashes between rival parties in the eastern state of West Bengal, two persons were killed in the northern state of Punjab, and one in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, according to news agency UNI.
There were reports of scattered incidents of violence, mostly skirmishes and a few exchanges of gunfire between supporters of rival parties from several states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
In the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, militants who had called for a boycott of elections fired at voters in two booths, but no one was injured. The militants also launched a rocket in Udhampur district but it did not injure anyone.
The largest numbers of violent incidents were reported from West Bengal where three people were killed and there were stray incidents of bomb-throwing and clashes.
A total of 230 persons were arrested. An election commission official has lodged a complaint with the police against the chief of the ruling leftist coalition in the state for intimidating election commission observers, the deputy election commissioner said. He did not give details.
A police official, a polling agent and a voter died after cardiac arrests in different booths in the southern state of Kerala.
The BJP-led NDA is expected to garner 245 to 265 seats, while the Congress and its allies are predicted to get 190 to 210 seats by the exit polls. Other parties should get between 85 to 100 seats.
Analysts say that while the exit polls indicate that Vajpayee could well be on the way to becoming prime minister again, the NDA may need to secure new allies from among regional and smaller parties.
Senior leaders of the BJP held a meeting on post-poll strategy in the national capital on Monday.
Meanwhile, Congress Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said at a press briefing that if the party had to form a government with others it would sit together with these parties to resolve the issue of who would become prime miister.
Some prospective allies of the Congress have expressed reservations about having Gandhi as prime minister. — Sapa-DPA