NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) both said they would win the Lok Sabha election.
“This election will be a close fight between the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and the UPA (United Progressive Alliance),” Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi admitted candidly, referring to the Congress-led UPA and the NDA led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He said the Congress tally after the five-phase balloting ending May 13 would be over 170 seats — about 100 short of the majority needed to form a government — and it hoped to earn support from smaller parties to take power. “No single party will be in a position to form a government on its own. It will be a coalition government,” Chaturvedi said. BJP President Rajnath Singh was more assertive in his claim, saying the NDA was poised to get a majority. But he did not assert that the BJP would earn the mandate on its own.
Four people were killed in poll violence in West Bengal and Rajasthan yesterday as nearly 54 million voters exercised their franchise in eight states in the fourth and penultimate round of India’s parliamentary elections, with major parties exploring post-poll equations in the face of what is widely expected to be a splintered verdict.
The 10-hour exercise involving 1,315 candidates in 85 constituencies in eight states took the number of Lok Sabha seats that have held balloting since April 16 to 457. The remaining 86 seats will see polling May 13, and the votes will be counted nationwide May 16.
Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishnan put the total polling at 57 percent of the 94.6 million voters. The electoral battle erupted in violence in Communist-ruled West Bengal where bomb attacks killed a voter each in Asansol and Murshidabad districts. A man wounded in a bomb blast Wednesday succumbed to his injuries. Three policemen were injured in one of the incidents.
West Bengal was also the state that saw the highest voter turnout of 75 percent with Bihar being the state with the lowest voting percentage of 37.
Rajasthan also saw violence. One man was also killed when the police opened fire at a mob that tried to a polling booth in Sawai Madhopur district in the state, where the Congress and BJP are locked in a fierce contest for its 25 Lok Sabha seats.
— With input from agencies
