NEW DELHI, 27 April 2004 — India’s key Hindi heartland states voted yesterday in the third phase of a five-phase general election that will decide who will rule the country of a billion plus people for the next five years.

Of the 172 million people who were eligible to vote yesterday, around 55 percent exercised their franchise, the Election Commission said.

In scorching heat, voters trickled into polling booths in 136 constituencies in 11 states, from the financial hub of Bombay to the bellwether northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the Kashmir Valley.

Voters decided the fate of a number of prominent politicians. They included Congress President Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), her son Rahul (Amethi), Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi (Mumbai North Central), Defense Minister George Fernandes (Muzaffarpur), Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav (Chapra), Bahujan Samaj Party head Mayawati (Akbarpur), 10 federal ministers and two former prime ministers.

Other heavyweights were former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (Ballia), Omar Abdullah (Srinagar) and Sharad Pawar (Baramati).

Film stars in yesterday’s race were Sunil Dutt from Northwest Bombay and Govinda from North Bombay.

Ten people were killed and at least 43 injured in violence in six of the 11 states. Four of the deaths occurred in the northeastern state of Manipur, where separatist rebels exploded bombs and imposed a shutdown to keep voters away.

A political worker of the ruling regional Telugu Desam Party was hacked to death in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh by a group of men who said they were supporters of the main opposition Congress party, said Ravi Shankar, a senior police officer.

Three people died and 17 were injured in Bihar, including a BJP member who was beaten to death by unidentified men.

In adjoining Jharkhand state, one policeman and one polling official were killed and four policemen injured in an attack by suspected Maoist rebels.

Many voters in disputed Kashmir stayed home after guerrillas called for a poll boycott and threatened violence. Voter turnout was only 21 percent, the Election Commission said. Still, with only three people wounded in two separate grenade attacks, it was considered an unusually peaceful day in the Himalayan province.

Two more rounds of voting are scheduled before results are announced May 13.

Uttar Pradesh and neighboring Bihar account for 120 of the federal Parliament’s 545 seats and are seen as critical to victory.

Polls show Congress has been gaining steadily through the campaign.

Three exit polls after voting ended at 5 p.m. gave the ruling coalition 144 to 160 of the 276 seats in which votes have been cast so far, compared with 172 in 1999, and Congress 91 to 103, compared with 69.

Based on this, the polls forecast 262 to 273 seats for the BJP-run coalition.