NEW DELHI, 2 December 2003 — Tens of millions of people voted yesterday in four state assembly polls seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2004 general elections as pollsters predicted mixed results for the two main political rivals.
The Election Commission said an estimated 56 percent of 94 million voters took part in a largely peaceful poll in the states of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Rajasthan posted the highest turnout with 60 percent of 33 million voters casting a ballot, Deputy Election Commissioner A. N. Jha said.
The turnout in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was between 55 and 58 percent, while Delhi reported the lowest turnout of up to 50 percent, he said.
Jha reported 23 instances of attacks on polling stations across the four states and said voting would be held again in 56 voting booths in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh tomorrow.
An unidentified woman and a man died in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in separate poll-related clashes while Maoist rebels stole voting machines and damaged poll centers in neighboring Chhattisgarh, he said.
The four state legislatures are governed by India’s main opposition Congress party and the country’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mounted major campaigns to woo voters.
An exit poll by ORG-MARG pollsters and broadcast by the Aaj Tak television network said the Congress would lose in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, but retain Delhi and Chhattisgarh.
A rival exit poll of 30,000 voters in 30 state seats broadcast by Zee Television predicted a neck-and-neck race between the two bitter foes in Rajasthan and did not rule out a hung assembly in Chhattisgarh.
Zee agreed with Aaj Tak that the Congress would retain its stranglehold on the 70-seat Delhi state assembly.
Exit polls in Indian elections have often proved to be inaccurate in the past.
Sources told AFP that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called a meeting of his BJP aides and Cabinet colleagues to “take stock” of the voting and the predictions after the nine-hour voting ended at 5:00 p.m. (1130 GMT) yesterday.
Both the Congress and the BJP earlier yesterday claimed the strong voter turnout would be in their favor.
“We are expecting good results,” said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Vajpayee’s BJP made similar claims. “BJP is very confident of winning in all the four states because these areas have suffered by the misrule of the Congress,” party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.
The BJP came to power nationally in 1998, leading a 23-party coalition but in the past four years the Congress has wrested power in half of India’s 28 states.
People across the four states enjoyed an extended weekend yesterday as most offices, schools and businesses remained shut for the election.
More than 500,000 election workers backed by 400,000 police and troops were on guard at the 102,056 polling centers.
Over the four states, 590 assembly seats are up for grabs with 5,348 hopeful candidates including eunuchs, street hawkers and former princes. The results will be released Thursday.
12 Killed in Kashmir as Border Truce Holds
Twelve people were killed in separatist violence overnight in Kashmir, where a border truce between the Indian and Pakistani military forces entered a sixth day yesterday, police said.
An Indian army soldier and a rebel were killed in fresh fighting yesterday morning in the southern Sidhra forests on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital, police said.
The incident takes the death toll in the forest clashes to four — two security personnel and two rebels.
The fighting began Sunday after militants fired on a government car, injuring a local official, his bodyguard and his driver.
Separately, two Indian security personnel and a militant were killed in a clash overnight in the village of Ghambir Mughlan in southern Poonch district, a police spokesman said.
Suspected militants also shot dead a worker of Kashmir Assembly’s main opposition National Conference party in the northern district of Kupwara and a civilian, Jamal Din, in southern Udhampur, police said.
No rebel group claimed responsibility for the killings.
Police said suspected rebels shot dead a former militant in the summmer capital Srinagar overnight, while a Muslim girl died in cross-fire between rebels and Indian troops in southern Anantnag district.
Three militants were killed in separate clashes across the scenic Himalayan province, police said.
Separatist violence has continued in Kashmir despite the border cease-fire between the Indian and Pakistani armies which went into effect Wednesday.
— Additional input from agencies
