960401

Indians vote steadily

at start of

election month

NEW DELHI: Indians voted steadily and peacefully across the nation on Saturday as general elections began in the world's most populous democracy.

Queues formed outside polling booths early as voters arrived to avoid the fiece daytime heat. Officials pored through registration lists at tables under the shade of trees.

"Its a crucially important election," said hotel director K.K. Mehra as he voted in Delhi. "A whole new generation is maturing and we will see now what their focus will be."

The vote follows a lacklustre campaign, stripped of its traditional carnival atmosphere by the strict enforcement of rules on electoral spending and canvassing practices.

Opinion polls predict the election, staggered over six days and ending on May 30, will result in a hung parliament and a coalition government. A clear picture of party strengths is expected by May 11.

Delhi's seven parliamentary seats were among the 150 constituencies in the 545-seat parliament voting on Saturday.

More than 160 million people were entitled to vote on Saturday, in 14 states and union territories. Voting was also under way for five state assemblies.

The main groups contesting the elections are the ruling Congress, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Front-Left Front alliance.

Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, whose government has been plagued by scandals and defections, has been campaigning on a platform of stability and the need to see through economic reforms that have opened India's doors to foreign investment.

His main opponent is the BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a former foreign minister.

Rao has repeatedly attacked the BJP's cultural nationalism or "hindutva", accusing it of fomenting divisions between the majority Hindus and India's 12 percent Muslim population.

Opinion polls forecast the BJP will become the largest party, with Congress, which has ruled India for all but four years since independence from Britain in 1947, getting its lowest ever vote share.-Reuter