[Reuters]

Published date: 16th February 1998

16 February 1998

Reuters News

English

(c) 1998 Reuters Limited

NEW DELHI, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Indian voters queued up early on Monday to cast their votes as the world’s largest democracy launched the first phase of a mid-term election that is widely predicted to return another hung parliament.

At least 250 million adults are eligible to vote on Monday for 222 seats in the 543-seat lower house of
parliament.

About 100,000 paramilitary soldiers have been deployed in sensitive regions to head off threats of sectarian violence in some areas and guerrilla attacks in others.

The tightened security followed a bloody weekend of riots and bombing that left more than 70 people dead.

“We are calm and confident,” Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill said late on Sunday. “Everything is on the rails. Election parties and security forces have moved everywhere.”

Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who has transformed the fortunes of herm Congress party with her energetic campaigning, was among early voters at a New Delhi booth that was ringed with heavy security.

“After the election I will answer your questions,” an unsmiling Gandhi told the huge crowd of reporters.
Wearing a blue sari, she arrived in a convoy of three cars to and spent a few minutes inside the dilapidated room In a government building where the station was set up.

The Indian army was called in to field “quick reaction teams” in the sensitive northeastern state of Assam, where Maoist insurgents have threatened a boycott of voting for the state’s 14 parliamentary seats.

Voting began at 7 a.m. (0130 GMT) to choose 222 of the 543 members in parliament’s lower house, the Lok Sabha. More voting will take place on February 22, 23, 28 and March 7; two snowbound constituencies In the north will vote only in June.

“We are receiving messages from officials around the country. Polling has begun peacefully,” said an Election Commission official who asked not to be identified. “No incident of violence has so far been reported.”

Voting in the cosmopolitan South Madras constituency in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state was brisk. Mostly middle-aged people — businessmen, bureaucrats and retired civil servants — lined up to cast their ballots. Enthusiastic voters in Mayur Vihar in east Delhi set off firecrackers to mark the start of the voting process. “I have cast my vote. All I want is a good government from whoever comes,” said Ajay Kumar, a university student.

“I have cast my vote. But I can definitely say it is going to be a coalition government,” said Shamim Ahmed, 32, at a polling booth in the New Delhi constituency.

Opinion polls have predicted the election will throw up India’s second hung parliament in as many years. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to win the most seats along with its allies, but to fall short of the majority required to form the next government.

Political leaders traded bitter accusations on Sunday over the outrages in Coimbatore, a textile town in Tamil Nadu state, where police said a total of 17 bombs took at least 48 lives over the weekend.

The bombers’ targets included a hospital, a rail station and a bus terminal. Riots and arson followed until police restored order with a warning that they would shoot rioters on sight.

In the aftermath, police swooped on a militant hideout early on Sunday and said six suspects were killed by their own bomb, which blew up as they tried to throw it during the raid.

The Press Trust of India reported that one person was injured in another blast in Coimbatore on Sunday
evening. Police seized two bags of explosives. More than 200 people have been detained.

The Coimbatore violence was the worst to hit the campaign for India’s general election.

At least 19 people were killed in pre-election violence elsewhere in India on Sunday.