NEW DELHI, 14 October 2004 — Voters in Maharashtra cast ballots yesterday in a closely fought election seen as the key test of the popularity of the national Congress government which took power in May.
Three people were killed in two separate incidents of poll violence in Uttar Pradesh where by-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat are being held.
According to reports, the violence took place in Aligarh and Mainpuri districts of the state. The victims in both cases were reported to be activists of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Television exit polls showed Congress party was heading for victory in Maharashtra. Business leaders and Bollywood stars were among tens of millions of Indians who turned out to vote in Maharashtra. Television exit polls released just after polls closed at 5:30 p.m. (1200 GMT) predicted Congress and its allies would come close to retaining their majority in the assembly in Bombay. But exit polls are notoriously unreliable in India and failed to predict the Congress victory nationally in May. Counting begins on Saturday and results are expected the same day.
“I have voted because I don’t want Congress to lose. Sonia Gandhi is an able leader and only she has concern for the working class,” said P. Koli, 42, an oil firm clerk.
Opinion poll conducted last week by ORG-MARG-Headlines gave Congress and its allies between 165 and 175 seats against 95-105 for BJP and its allies, while the NDTV-Indian Express poll gave Congress coalition 132 seats against BJP-alliance getting 111 seats, with both falling short of the 145-majority mark. With these being the first Congress-BJP major combat at the state level since parliamentary polls, Congress leaders are confident that they will return to power in Maharashtra.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal said: “It is a close fight, but we are going to win.”
The BJP is looking for a comeback in Maharashtra, whose population of 100 million is equivalent to that of Germany and the Netherlands combined. Away from the skyscrapers of Bombay, hundreds of slum dwellers queued under a hot sun to cast their vote in a chance to seek a change for the better in their squalid living conditions.
By-elections were also held in three parliamentary and 39 assembly constituencies spread across 16 Indian states.
Heavy security was mounted in the three Lok Sabha constituencies of Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh), Madhepura (Bihar) and Bidar (Karnataka).
In Madhepura, vacated by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in favor of his other seat from Chapra, voters queued up outside the booths much before the polling began.
About 4,000 paramilitary personnel, besides police, are keeping a vigil on the violence-prone region, while shoot-at-sight orders have been issued to prevent malpractices.
Balloting also took place under heavy security in four assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, including in Pahalgam from where Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is contesting. His daughter Mehbooba Mufti had vacated the seat to contest the parliamentary elections.
The other three constituencies are Batamaloo in Srinagar and Akhnoor and Basohli in Jammu.
Polling began on a sedate note in Garhshankar and Kapurthala constituencies in Punjab where a large number of polling booths have been identified as “sensitive”, or prone to violence.
In Rajasthan, people began voting early in the assembly constituencies of Merta and Behror.
—Additional input from agencies
