NEW DELHI: Moderate to brisk voting took place yesterday at some 165,000 polling centers for 107 Lok Sabha seats in nine states and two union territories in the third round of five-phased elections.
The third round with the searing summer heat affecting voter turnout in several places even as the key contenders for power admitted that the country was irrevocably headed for another coalition government.
Millions braved the heat in most parts of the country while Kashmiris defied death threats from Pakistan-based terrorists.
A total of 1,567 candidates were in the fray including Congress President Sonia Gandhi and L.K. Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s choice of prime minister. Polling also took place for the 32-member legislature in Sikkim, bordering China, which sends a single member to the Lok Sabha.
“The entire poll process was absolutely peaceful and extremely satisfactory,” Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishnan told reporters after the 10-hour exercise. He said many voters stood in queues even after the scheduled close of polling at 5 p.m., patiently waiting for their turn. In the Gir forests of Gujarat, home to the majestic Asiatic lion, two officials trekked 20 km to reach a polling station where its only voter cast his ballot.
Initial estimates said nearly 50 percent of the 107 million electorate voted yesterday, taking the total number who have exercised their franchise in three rounds covering 372 Lok Sabha seats to 246 million. The rest of the 543 constituencies would see voting May 7 and 13 and the results would be declared May 16.
But despite the weather, the poor, the middle class and the rich trooped to polling centers in large numbers in Mumbai, India’s financial and movie capital, to keep their date with democracy. Early voters included actors Sonam Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Sushma Reddy, Amrita Rao, Sonali Bendre as well as Aamir Khan.
The polling was lowest at just over 26 percent in the Kashmir Valley’s Anantnag constituency, once a militant stronghold, but it was nevertheless more than the 15 percent recorded in 2004.
Compared to Anantnag’s towns and cities, rural areas also saw large-scale voting, delivering another blow to the separatist Hurriyat Conference that had called for an election boycott.
— With input from agencies
