Crucial Indian state election comes to an end

Crucial Indian state election comes to an end

BOMBAY (AFP): More than 15 million people voted yesterday in
the western Indian state of Maharashtra in the final phase of
state polls seen as crucial for Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao
and his economic reforms.

About 60 percent of the 26 million voters turned out amid
tight security in the 10-hour polling to pick 139 members to the
288-seat legislature, election commission officials said. The
polling was peaceful.

In the first phase of elections Thursday, 147 constituencies
went to the polls. Voting for two seats has been postponed. The
results of the ballot will be announced in mid-March after polls
are completed in five other states.

More than 35,000 police and paramilitary forces were deployed
to maintain peace during yesterday's balloting, and security was
tight in Bombay, India's financial hub which was rocked by bloody
Hindu-Moslem clashes two years ago.

A top leader of Rao's Congress (I) party, which rules
Maharashtra, linked the vote to the future of India's market
reforms, and warned that a Congress defeat would spell danger for
the liberalizing economy.

"Already, several foreign investors have expressed concern..,"
said Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar in remarks published
yesterday.

"Since Bombay is the commercial capital of India, any adverse
development ... will have serious implication for the national
economy," said Pawar, who is facing his biggest political
challenge in the elections.

The faction-ridden Congress (I) faces a stiff challenge from
an alliance of the Hindu militant Shiv Sena (Shiva's Army) and
the main opposition Hindu-revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(Indian People's Party).

Opinion polls have predicted that the Congress was set to lose
control of Maharashtra for the first time since Indian
independence in 1947, a development expected to spell political
disaster for the 73-year-old premier.

Maharashtra is India's most industrialized state and the main
beneficiary of the economic reforms, which opened the doors to
foreign investors but have recently attracted criticism that they
had done nothing for the poor.

"If there is an anti-Congress result, there will be an
immediate negative psychological impact," said Madan Gopal
Damani, chief of the Brokers Forum at the Bombay Stock Exchange,
India's largest bourse.

Zerxes Lashkari, vice president of Mafatlal Industries, said
"some disruptions" in investment were likely in case of a
Congress defeat.

Besides Maharashtra, polling is scheduled in February and
March in five other states. Analysts warn that a possible defeat
would fuel a fresh revolt in the Congress against Rao.

Rao has been under a cloud since leading the 109-year-old
Congress to a humiliating rout in elections in two key states in
December which sparked a rebellion by his arch foe, Arjun Singh.

Arjun Singh quit the cabinet on December 24 and spearheaded a
revolt against Rao, who sacked him from the party Feb. 7.

Arjun Singh has accused Rao of pandering to corruption,
failing to build up the 109-year-old Congress and has sought a
"human face" to the economic reforms, calling them anti-poor.

Although the BJP and Shiv Sena are pro-private sector, the
former opposes the unhindered opening up of the Indian economy
and has vowed to review a controversial US$1.1 billion
Maharashtra power project awarded to a US consortium led by
Enron.

Rao, who expanded his cabinet three days ago as part of a
counter-offensive against Arjun Singh and his supporters, is
appealing to voters not to vote out his party in Maharashtra and
Gujarat.

Simultaneously, in recent days, he has promised to correct the
drawbacks in the free-market policies, which have been acclaimed
internationally but are yet to win wide acceptance within the
country.