Close X
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
ADVT 
India

Lok Sabha election ends, India awaits verdict

Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 May, 2014 10:21 AM
    India's most bitterly fought national election ended Monday evening, with some 60 percent of the 66 million electorate in three states voting in the 10th and last leg of a contest widely tipped to end a decade of Congress rule.
     
    The Election Commission said the balloting ended in Uttar Pradesh (18 seats), West Bengal (17) and Bihar (six), marking the culmination of over five weeks of electoral process during which more than 500 million voters came out to elect a new 545-member Lok Sabha.
     
    Most interest nationally on the final day of polling Monday was on Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh where BJP veteran Narendra Modi, who will be the new prime minister if the BJP-led NDA coalition wins, was a candidate, his might challenged by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress.
     
    Barring stray clashes and allegations of voter intimidation in parts of West Bengal, Monday's voting too passed off peacefully in a tribute to the world's largest democracy.
     
    As in the past, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was confident of forming the next government.
     
    "We will cross the half-way mark of 272" (in the Lok Sabha), party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told IANS. "And there will be a government led by Narendra Modi."
     
    Exit polls are expected within an hour, while the actual counting of the millions of votes polled across the country will take place Friday.
     
    Monday saw a key index of the Bombay Stock Exchange closing at an all-time high, just before exit polls started pouring in, gaining over 550 points or nearly 2.5 percent intra-day.
     
    Even as voting started, serpentine queues of men and women voters were seen at most of the 71,254 polling centres in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as West Bengal.
     
    The turnout was so heavy in Varanasi that some voters complained that they had been standing in the queue for as long as four hours.
     
    More than 50 percent of the electorate had voted within the first six hours of polling that began at 7 a.m. Balloting continued right up to the time the polling centres closed in the evening.
     
    In Varanasi, Aam Aadmi Party's Kejriwal, a former Delhi chief minister, claimed he was sure to defeat Modi. "The situation has changed in the last three days, and now everyone is saying Modi is losing."
     
    Kejriwal insisted that the Varanasi battle was no more a triangular contest. "(Congress candidate) Ajai Rai does not feature anywhere. I feel it is a direct fight with Modi."
     
    The BJP is equally confident of ensuring Modi's win by a huge margin in Varanasi, the second Lok Sabha seat from where the Gujarat chief minister is contesting besides Vadodara in his home state.
     
    Modi Monday urged the electorate to vote in large numbers. His appeal, telecast by television news channels, triggered an immediate protest from the AAP which called it a violation of the model code of conduct.
     
    Ajay Rai courted controversy when he walked into a polling station with the party symbol tucked on his kurta -- a violation of electoral laws.
     
    Officials reported brisk polling in the other 17 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh too, including Azamgarh where Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is considered the front-runner.
     
    In Bihar, almost 55 percent of the electorate had voted by 4 p.m.
     
    Additional Chief Electoral Officer R. Lakshmanan said voting was peaceful despite fears of violence. The six constituencies where polling took place were Valmiki Nagar, West Champaran, East Champaran, Vaishali, Gopalganj and Siwan.
     
    The highest polling of nearly 70 percent was reported till 3 p.m. from West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress is battling the Congress, the Left and a resurgent BJP in 17 Lok Sabha seats.
     
    The opposition accused the Trinamool of unleashing violence to intimidate voters. They claimed that a number of their polling agents were driven out of booths. The Trinamool denied the allegations.
     
    Some 20 people were injured in clashes between CPI-M and Trinamool activists in Haroa, about 40 km from Kolkata. 
     
    Uttar Pradesh accounted for most candidates in the final round (328) followed by West Bengal (188) and Bihar (90). Uttar Pradesh has 31 million voters, West Bengal 25 million and Bihar about 9 million. 
     
    The drawn out Lok Sabha contest that began April 7 was one of the most bitterly fought in India, with political discourse repeatedly degenerating into vicious personal attacks. 

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Modi: Our governance will be 'drastically different', will allay minority fears

    Modi: Our governance will be 'drastically different', will allay minority fears
    BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has said a government headed by him "will go the extra mile" to give justice to all and a dispensation "where nobody needs to be apprehensive or fearful". He said a BJP-led government will be "drastically different" from the UPA's approach to governance.

    Modi: Our governance will be 'drastically different', will allay minority fears

    Craze for leading Delhi schools leaves many distressed

    Craze for leading Delhi schools leaves many distressed
    Thousands of parents are undergoing a harrowing time as they battle to get their children into nursery classes of leading schools in the national capital. But many are celebrating too.

    Craze for leading Delhi schools leaves many distressed

    Assam Attacks: Bodo militants massacre 27 migrant Muslims over 24 hours

    Assam Attacks: Bodo militants massacre 27 migrant Muslims over 24 hours
    The toll in the twin attacks in Assam rose to 27 Saturday. The state government decided to hand over the probe to the NIA while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as a "cowardly attempt to spread fear and terror".

    Assam Attacks: Bodo militants massacre 27 migrant Muslims over 24 hours

    India successfully test-fires Akash missile

    India successfully test-fires Akash missile
    India Friday successfully test-fired its Akash medium-range surface-to-air missile from a defence base in Odisha for the second time in two days, an official said.

    India successfully test-fires Akash missile

    Police looking for bald man in Chennai train blasts

    Police looking for bald man in Chennai train blasts
    Tamil Nadu Police Friday said they found the movements of a bald man who disembarked from the train and ran away before the twin bomb blasts as unusual and would like to question him during investigation.

    Police looking for bald man in Chennai train blasts

    Prasar Bharati CEO takes on Tewari, admits Modi interview edited

    Prasar Bharati CEO takes on Tewari, admits Modi interview edited
    In a hard-hitting letter, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar Friday acknowledged that certain portions of the Narendra Modi interview on Doordarshan "were apparently edited" and pointed a finger at Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant "operational autonomy" to the public broadcaster that it has been seeking for years.

    Prasar Bharati CEO takes on Tewari, admits Modi interview edited