New Delhi, May 11: Campaigning for one of the most
bitterly fought Lok Sabha elections in recent years ended
on Monday, marking culmination of the five-phase month-long
electioneering with no clear signs of the winner.
The general elections will decide if the ruling UPA
coalition will hold on to power or will the multi-party NDA
return after a five-year hiatus or if a third combination
would emerge the dark horse.
A party or combine needs 272 seats in the 545-member Lok
Sabha in order to stake claim to form government. Polling has
been completed to 457 seats since the staggered exercise began
on April 16. Elections are held only to 543 seats as two
members are nominated from the Anglo-Indian community.
The final phase would see election of 86 MPs and among
the contenders are Congress` P Chidambaram and Md Azharuddin,
BJP`s Maneka and Varun Gandhi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, DMK`s T
R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran and M K Azhagiri, MDMK`s
Vaiko, TC chief Mamata Banerjee and SP`s Jayaprada.
Congress` Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sajjad Gani Lone of
People`s Conference are also among the prominent names in this
leg, in which 10.78 crore voters can choose from 1,432
candidates.
Elections would be held to all 39 seats in the key state
of Tamil Nadu and four seats in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jammu
and Kashmir, nine in Punjab, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in West
Bengal, five in Uttarakhand and the lone one seat each in both
Chandigarh and Puducherry.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which contested the elections
in Andhra Pradesh as part of the Third Front, yesterday
appeared in the company of NDA leaders at a public meeting in
Ludhiana highlighting that realignment of forces, key to
securing power, has already begun.
The Left Parties, whom Congress general secretary Rahul
Gandhi had sent feelers to for a post-poll tie-up, too have
indicated that they were keeping options open.
"Let the elections be over. Let the results come...After
May 16, we will see," said CPI-M general secretary Prakash
Karat, whose party had withdrawn support to the Congress-led
UPA over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
Elsewhere, Jayalalithaa denied that the AIADMK was in
secret talks with others for an alliance.
Rahul Gandhi`s reference to Jayalalithaa in the context
of alliance at a press conference in Delhi last week had
apparently upset the DMK, the Congress` ally in Tamil Nadu.
The Gandhi scion had later reassured the ally that it was
very much Congress`s partner for elections in the state and
that the two would work together in other states as well.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi later appeared together
with DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi
on the same platform at an election meeting, while Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh too had called on him.
Tamil Nadu is key as the DMK-Congress combine had swept
all the 39 seats in the 2004 elections.
6000 villages, hamlets vulnerable: EC
People in over 6,000 villages and
hamlets in nine states and two Union Territories going to
polls in the final phase are vulnerable to threats and intimidation, the
Election Commission said today.
Nearly 19,000 trouble-makers have been identified against
whom preventive measures have been initiated to ensure free
and fair polls, Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan
told reporters here.
He said 86,782 villages and hamlets in various parts of
the country have been identified as vulnerable to threats and
intimidation in the ongoing election process and specific
action taken against over 3.73 lakh people.
Bureau Report
