India Faces Election Deadlock
Voting on Saturday ended a staggered election for India's next government in all but a handful of remote districts, with exit polls suggesting stronger support for Hindu nationalists.
Two exit polls indicated the major parties could be headed for another deadlock and more of the same tumultuous politics that forced India to vote three years ahead of schedule.
But the trend was unclear, with the two polls varying widely on how much support the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoyed.
The Congress Party, which governed India for 45 of its 50 years, was doing better than expected, the exit polls indicated. The party picked up momentum after Sonia Gandhi, the reclusive widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, went on a campaign blitz with promises of a revitalized leadership for the scandal-ridden party.
"Half the people are fed up with elections, the other half think everything is rigged," said Rishi Shah, a 20-year-old first-time voter in Bombay, India's financial capital. "But I feel voting is our constitutional right, or you shut up and accept any government."
Saturday's voting completed the election for all but six of the 543 contested seats in Parliament. Vote counting begins Monday, even before the final districts go to the polls.
More than 300 million of India's 600 million voters have cast ballots in the election, which was staggered over six days to give security forces time to move across a country where religious, ethnic and caste difference often erupt into violence.
Seven people were killed in election-related violence Saturday, bringing the death toll to at least 75 since elections began Feb. 16, but the day's violence was mild compared with other voting days.
In the state of Kashmir, armed troops confronted Muslim separatists boycotting the polls Saturday, and reluctant citizens complained that soldiers forced them to vote against their will. Ten-year-old boys said they were taken to polling booths and compelled to cast ballots registered to other people.
In Kashmir's Baramulla district, gunmen ambushed activists from the National Conference party, which governs the state, killing two of them. Another two people were killed and 12 injured by a hand grenade in the town of Sopore, police said.
In Bihar, leftist militants detonated land mines that killed three policemen patrolling booths where balloting was being repeated because of violence during an earlier round of voting, Press Trust of India reported.
Unlike previous election days, few clashes were reported between political rivals outside polling stations. But mutual accusations of vote-rigging flew among the parties.
Written by Arthur Max.
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