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.