16 May 2009, 1833 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday told the party's Parliamentary Board that he does not want to continue as the Leader of the Opposition in the new Lok Sabha.
"In the Parliamentary Board meeting, Advani said he did not want to be the Leader of the Opposition, but the Board insisted that he should continue. However, Advani said he should not continue," BJP President Rajnath Singh said.
Since Advani was adamant on not continuing, the Parliamentary Board decided that a final view on the issue would be taken later.
"The Parliamentary Board has authorized me to convince Advani to change his opinion," Singh said.
Senior leader Sushma Swaraj's name is doing the rounds as the Leader of Opposition in case Advani sticks to his decision.
"Advaniji will continue to be our leader," Singh said.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
End of the road for L K Advani?
16 May 2009,
NEW DELHI: Age was not on his side. And now it seems people were not either. Verdict 2009 seems to have dashed the prime ministerial hopes of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 'iron man', 81-year-old, L K Advani forever.
The 15th Lok Sabha election was arguably his last attempt to get the nation's top job in the twilight of his nearly five-decade-old political career, after being in the shadow of Atal Bihari Vajpayee for long.
Advani - the "symbol of the BJP's ideological battle" as some in the Hindu rightwing fraternity call him - may be the clear winner from his Gandhinagar constituency but lost the bigger fight that he, his family and party members heavily invested in.
With the rival Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) staging spectacular wins, it may well be the end of the road for Advani, whose Somnath to Ayodhya-Ram Janmabhoomi movement had put the right-of-centre party into political reckoning.
"It seems that it is the end of the road for him. He will be too old to contest the polls after five years," political scientist Sudha Pai at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said.
It was Advani who had taken charge of the BJP's Hindutva campaign, with the Ayodhya movement culminating in the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992 and putting the party in the political reckoning within less than a decade of returning just two MPs in 1984.
But he lost the script somewhere in the compulsion of coalition politics that catapulted Vajpayee - the party's moderate face - to the post of prime minister, with Advani as the number two.
His later attempts to reposition himself into the secular mode left the BJP leader with no clear identity of his own, some say. It started off with his 2005 Pakistan visit where he praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
In his new avatar, Advani also put the cause of the Ram temple on the backburner. He was resurrected by his party and made the prime ministerial candidate since Vajpayee is out of action because of ill health.
Advani spared no effort to reach out to every nook and cranny of the country, travelling more than 60,000-odd km, braving the sweltering heat with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees celsius. The octogenarian even lifted weights and pitched himself in cyberspace.
His backroom boys worked round the clock, while the BJP leader also found time to interact with young and first-time voters on his website.
Advani made a strong case for himself by his continuous tirade against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, calling him weak and subservient to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But it didn't work.
"This is clearly a vote for Manmohan Singh, who is clean, capable, educated and intelligent; no other leader, including Advani, has these qualities. Advani lost it for the way he attacked Manmohan Singh, the way he behaved right through the campaign, " says Pai.
The BJP's advertisements pitched Advani as a 'Loh Purush (iron man)', or tough leader, with pictures of him showing his fist.
"Advani is a symbol of the BJP's ideological battle," said Tarun Vijay, former editor of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece Panchjanya.
"There's no question of the end of the road for Advani or anybody. The BJP is not an individual centric party."
But his being projected as the prime ministerial candidate does not seem to have cut much ice with voters. Some sections of the BJP privately said a younger leader like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could have probably helped the party do better.
However, party general secretary Arun Jaitley said: "Advani was the NDA's face and this has not affected the party's overall performance."
He clearly failed to recreate the magic of Vajpayee who straddled the political spectrum like a colossus. On Saturday, with the party's debacle, BJP president Rajnath Singh said the party missed Vajpayee in the elections.
And now Advani may not get another chance.
NEW DELHI: Age was not on his side. And now it seems people were not either. Verdict 2009 seems to have dashed the prime ministerial hopes of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 'iron man', 81-year-old, L K Advani forever.
The 15th Lok Sabha election was arguably his last attempt to get the nation's top job in the twilight of his nearly five-decade-old political career, after being in the shadow of Atal Bihari Vajpayee for long.
Advani - the "symbol of the BJP's ideological battle" as some in the Hindu rightwing fraternity call him - may be the clear winner from his Gandhinagar constituency but lost the bigger fight that he, his family and party members heavily invested in.
With the rival Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) staging spectacular wins, it may well be the end of the road for Advani, whose Somnath to Ayodhya-Ram Janmabhoomi movement had put the right-of-centre party into political reckoning.
"It seems that it is the end of the road for him. He will be too old to contest the polls after five years," political scientist Sudha Pai at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said.
It was Advani who had taken charge of the BJP's Hindutva campaign, with the Ayodhya movement culminating in the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992 and putting the party in the political reckoning within less than a decade of returning just two MPs in 1984.
But he lost the script somewhere in the compulsion of coalition politics that catapulted Vajpayee - the party's moderate face - to the post of prime minister, with Advani as the number two.
His later attempts to reposition himself into the secular mode left the BJP leader with no clear identity of his own, some say. It started off with his 2005 Pakistan visit where he praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
In his new avatar, Advani also put the cause of the Ram temple on the backburner. He was resurrected by his party and made the prime ministerial candidate since Vajpayee is out of action because of ill health.
Advani spared no effort to reach out to every nook and cranny of the country, travelling more than 60,000-odd km, braving the sweltering heat with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees celsius. The octogenarian even lifted weights and pitched himself in cyberspace.
His backroom boys worked round the clock, while the BJP leader also found time to interact with young and first-time voters on his website.
Advani made a strong case for himself by his continuous tirade against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, calling him weak and subservient to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But it didn't work.
"This is clearly a vote for Manmohan Singh, who is clean, capable, educated and intelligent; no other leader, including Advani, has these qualities. Advani lost it for the way he attacked Manmohan Singh, the way he behaved right through the campaign, " says Pai.
The BJP's advertisements pitched Advani as a 'Loh Purush (iron man)', or tough leader, with pictures of him showing his fist.
"Advani is a symbol of the BJP's ideological battle," said Tarun Vijay, former editor of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece Panchjanya.
"There's no question of the end of the road for Advani or anybody. The BJP is not an individual centric party."
But his being projected as the prime ministerial candidate does not seem to have cut much ice with voters. Some sections of the BJP privately said a younger leader like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could have probably helped the party do better.
However, party general secretary Arun Jaitley said: "Advani was the NDA's face and this has not affected the party's overall performance."
He clearly failed to recreate the magic of Vajpayee who straddled the political spectrum like a colossus. On Saturday, with the party's debacle, BJP president Rajnath Singh said the party missed Vajpayee in the elections.
And now Advani may not get another chance.
UP: BSP ahead in 24, SP in 23, Cong 18 and BJP in 8 seats
16 May 2009, PTI
LUCKNOW: Faced with internal bickerings and an open challenge by one of its senior leaders, the Samajwadi Party, which rescued the Manmohan Singh government after the Left withdrew support on the nuclear deal issue, has emerged a lesser player in Parliament this time around.
69-year-old SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who once ran the affairs of Uttar Pradesh, and whose party was the fourth largest in the outgoing Lok Sabha, suffered in the elections apparently due to a myriad of factors including a revolt by party's Muslim face Azam Khan after the tie-up with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.
The party is now slated to win around a score of seats. It had at one stage in the 14th Lok Sabha a tally of 39. But it is still expected to emerge as the largest party in UP.
Heading the government in Uttar Pradesh, the SP had managed to poll 26.74 per cent votes in 2004, surprising its political opponents though its good harvest at the hustings had proved to be of little value at the Centre. During the major portion of UPA's term, the party had failed to break ice with the Congress.
But in July last year, the SP extended support to the UPA during the no-trust vote on the nuclear deal issue but did not join the government, remaining an outside supporter.
This time the SP's proximity with Kalyan Singh came in for criticism not only from Azam Khan, the co-founder of the party in 1992, but other Muslim leaders too. They accused Yadav of tying up with the former UP Chief Minister during whose rule the Babri Masjid was demolished. Politicians like Raj Babbar, Salim Shervani and Shafiqur Rehman Burq had campaigned against the SP.
Meanwhile, top Congress leaders including its president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and BJP's Varun Gandhi were leading over their rivals by huge margins in their respective constituencies in Uttar Pradesh with BSP, SP and the Congress virtually running neck-to-neck in trends in the 80 seats in the state/
While Sonia is leading in Rae Bareli by a margin of over 1.42 lakh votes over her BSP rival R S Kushwaha, Rahul has established a lead of over 95,000 votes over Ashish Shukla of BSP in Amethi.
BJP candidate from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi has won against Congress's V M Singh.
Former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who is contesting as an independent from Etah is leading over his BSP rival Devendra Singh Yadav by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
In Mainpuri, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is leading by a margin of over 50,000 votes over Vinay Shakya of BSP.
Cricketer-turned-politician Mohd Azharuddin, who is contesting from Moradabad as Congress nominee, has won against BJP's Sarvesh Kumar.
Former Union Minister and Congress nominee from Sultanpur Sanjay Singh is leading by a margin of over 45,000 votes over Mohd Tahir of BSP.
BJP leader Maneka Gandhi has won against Dharmendra Kumar of SP in Aonla. Due to a mistake in the tabulation of votes, Maneka Gandhi had earlier been reported to have lost by about 22,000 votes, one official said. It was finally found that she had won by about 6,400 votes.
LUCKNOW: Faced with internal bickerings and an open challenge by one of its senior leaders, the Samajwadi Party, which rescued the Manmohan Singh government after the Left withdrew support on the nuclear deal issue, has emerged a lesser player in Parliament this time around.
69-year-old SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who once ran the affairs of Uttar Pradesh, and whose party was the fourth largest in the outgoing Lok Sabha, suffered in the elections apparently due to a myriad of factors including a revolt by party's Muslim face Azam Khan after the tie-up with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.
The party is now slated to win around a score of seats. It had at one stage in the 14th Lok Sabha a tally of 39. But it is still expected to emerge as the largest party in UP.
Heading the government in Uttar Pradesh, the SP had managed to poll 26.74 per cent votes in 2004, surprising its political opponents though its good harvest at the hustings had proved to be of little value at the Centre. During the major portion of UPA's term, the party had failed to break ice with the Congress.
But in July last year, the SP extended support to the UPA during the no-trust vote on the nuclear deal issue but did not join the government, remaining an outside supporter.
This time the SP's proximity with Kalyan Singh came in for criticism not only from Azam Khan, the co-founder of the party in 1992, but other Muslim leaders too. They accused Yadav of tying up with the former UP Chief Minister during whose rule the Babri Masjid was demolished. Politicians like Raj Babbar, Salim Shervani and Shafiqur Rehman Burq had campaigned against the SP.
Meanwhile, top Congress leaders including its president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and BJP's Varun Gandhi were leading over their rivals by huge margins in their respective constituencies in Uttar Pradesh with BSP, SP and the Congress virtually running neck-to-neck in trends in the 80 seats in the state/
While Sonia is leading in Rae Bareli by a margin of over 1.42 lakh votes over her BSP rival R S Kushwaha, Rahul has established a lead of over 95,000 votes over Ashish Shukla of BSP in Amethi.
BJP candidate from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi has won against Congress's V M Singh.
Former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who is contesting as an independent from Etah is leading over his BSP rival Devendra Singh Yadav by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
In Mainpuri, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is leading by a margin of over 50,000 votes over Vinay Shakya of BSP.
Cricketer-turned-politician Mohd Azharuddin, who is contesting from Moradabad as Congress nominee, has won against BJP's Sarvesh Kumar.
Former Union Minister and Congress nominee from Sultanpur Sanjay Singh is leading by a margin of over 45,000 votes over Mohd Tahir of BSP.
BJP leader Maneka Gandhi has won against Dharmendra Kumar of SP in Aonla. Due to a mistake in the tabulation of votes, Maneka Gandhi had earlier been reported to have lost by about 22,000 votes, one official said. It was finally found that she had won by about 6,400 votes.
BJD poised for hat-trick in Orissa, not to suppport Cong-led govt
16 May 2009, PTI
BHUBANESWAR: Poised for a hat-trick third term BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik today said that his party would work harder for the state's development.
"I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity shown by the people of my state towards the BJD," Patnaik told reporters here.
"I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people. We shall work much harder and ensure peace, harmony, progress, development and welfare of the state," he said.
Asked which political formation his party would support at the Centre, Patnaik said that BJD would not align with a Congress-led or BJP-led alliance.
"We have been repeatedly saying that we are not going to support a Congress-led or a BJP-led government at the Centre," Naveen Patnaik told reporters here.
"I stand by my earlier statement," he said. "The BJD is a regional party and naturally our focus is on our state. We will like the government at the Centre to fulfil the just demands of the people of Orissa," Patnaik added.
"We are now receiving the trends, let the complete results come. After that I will sit with senior party leaders to chalk out our future course of action," he said.
BHUBANESWAR: Poised for a hat-trick third term BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik today said that his party would work harder for the state's development.
"I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity shown by the people of my state towards the BJD," Patnaik told reporters here.
"I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people. We shall work much harder and ensure peace, harmony, progress, development and welfare of the state," he said.
Asked which political formation his party would support at the Centre, Patnaik said that BJD would not align with a Congress-led or BJP-led alliance.
"We have been repeatedly saying that we are not going to support a Congress-led or a BJP-led government at the Centre," Naveen Patnaik told reporters here.
"I stand by my earlier statement," he said. "The BJD is a regional party and naturally our focus is on our state. We will like the government at the Centre to fulfil the just demands of the people of Orissa," Patnaik added.
"We are now receiving the trends, let the complete results come. After that I will sit with senior party leaders to chalk out our future course of action," he said.
Nitish Kumar's development factor helps JD-U sweep Bihar polls
16 May 2009,
PATNA: The Janata Dal-United's (JD-U) near sweep of the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar is being widely attributed to the development work done by party leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The JD-U and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine was leading in 32 of Bihar's 40 seats as counting of votes was underway Saturday.
"People across Bihar voted for Nitish Kumar's development, his D-factor clicked," Gopilal Sharma, businessman, said here.
Nashrul Azmal, who runs a real estate company, said that people were moved by Nitish Kumar's initiatives for development.
"Credit for a huge victory for JD-U and BJP combine goes to Nitish Kumar's development(work)," he said.
Chanchal Singh, a homemaker, said people respected Nitish Kumar. The chief minister had sought votes in the name of development.
"Nitish Kumar has built long-delayed bridges and re-laid roads that had ceased to exist, appointed over 100,000 school teachers, ensured that doctors work in primary health centres and kept criminals in check," she said.
Nitish Kumar's stock has gone up because his development plank has become a magic word for the JD-U and the BJP in a state sick and tired of empty election promises.
Senior JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari said: "Development during Nitish Kumar's 40-month rule in Bihar helped us win the elections. We are more confident than ever before."
Interestingly, the BJP also played the development card to woo voters in the name of Nitish Kumar rather than contentious issues like the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
During the campaign, Nitish Kumar hardly missed a chance to remind people that the rule of law has been established, more than 30,000 criminals have been convicted, kidnapping has become a thing of the past, roads have been constructed on a large scale and government schools and hospitals are functioning.
Bihar is a state where nearly 50 percent of 83 million people are living below the poverty line.
Since coming to power in 2005, Nitish Kumar has claimed that he has made a dramatic difference to the lives of millions.
PATNA: The Janata Dal-United's (JD-U) near sweep of the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar is being widely attributed to the development work done by party leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The JD-U and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine was leading in 32 of Bihar's 40 seats as counting of votes was underway Saturday.
"People across Bihar voted for Nitish Kumar's development, his D-factor clicked," Gopilal Sharma, businessman, said here.
Nashrul Azmal, who runs a real estate company, said that people were moved by Nitish Kumar's initiatives for development.
"Credit for a huge victory for JD-U and BJP combine goes to Nitish Kumar's development(work)," he said.
Chanchal Singh, a homemaker, said people respected Nitish Kumar. The chief minister had sought votes in the name of development.
"Nitish Kumar has built long-delayed bridges and re-laid roads that had ceased to exist, appointed over 100,000 school teachers, ensured that doctors work in primary health centres and kept criminals in check," she said.
Nitish Kumar's stock has gone up because his development plank has become a magic word for the JD-U and the BJP in a state sick and tired of empty election promises.
Senior JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari said: "Development during Nitish Kumar's 40-month rule in Bihar helped us win the elections. We are more confident than ever before."
Interestingly, the BJP also played the development card to woo voters in the name of Nitish Kumar rather than contentious issues like the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
During the campaign, Nitish Kumar hardly missed a chance to remind people that the rule of law has been established, more than 30,000 criminals have been convicted, kidnapping has become a thing of the past, roads have been constructed on a large scale and government schools and hospitals are functioning.
Bihar is a state where nearly 50 percent of 83 million people are living below the poverty line.
Since coming to power in 2005, Nitish Kumar has claimed that he has made a dramatic difference to the lives of millions.
BJP win 10 of Chhattisgarh's 11 seats
16 May 2009,
RAIPUR: After the November assembly polls, the "Raman effect" has done its magic again in the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning 10 out of state's 11 Lok Sabha seats Saturday.
Chief minister Raman Singh, who had led the party back to power in the state last November, is largely credited for the BJP's sweep. Only newly created Korba constituency went to the Congress, with the party's state working president Charandas Mahant stunning BJP's Karuna Shukla, niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The BJP won all the four seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidates - Bastar, Kanker, Raigarh and Surguja - besides Janjgir, the lone seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes. It also won in Durg, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund, Raipur and Bilaspur.
BJP state unit chief Vishnudeo Sai, who won Raigarh, told IANS by phone: "The clean sweep in the state was predicted. All credit goes to Raman Singh, his clean image and concerted effort to bring development to the state."
The poll outcome proved to be a shocker for Congress leader and state's first chief minister Ajit Jogi as not only did his wife Renu Jogi lose to former central minister and flamboyant BJP leader Dilip Singh Judeo from Bilaspur but also four of his supporters, for whose nomination he lobbied hard, lost the polls by huge margins.
"Though good news is coming in from Delhi that we are set to return to power but the outcome in the state is clearly shocking for the Congress. We never thought of getting just one seat. The state leaders will sit together soon to analyse the reasons for stunning defeat," Congress state general secretary Ramesh Varlyani told IANS.
In the 2004 parliamentary polls, the BJP won 10 seats while the Congress bagged one. The BJP's strength was later reduced to nine with the Congress winning the Rajnandgaon by-election after BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi was expelled from parliament following the cash-for-query scam.
RAIPUR: After the November assembly polls, the "Raman effect" has done its magic again in the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning 10 out of state's 11 Lok Sabha seats Saturday.
Chief minister Raman Singh, who had led the party back to power in the state last November, is largely credited for the BJP's sweep. Only newly created Korba constituency went to the Congress, with the party's state working president Charandas Mahant stunning BJP's Karuna Shukla, niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The BJP won all the four seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidates - Bastar, Kanker, Raigarh and Surguja - besides Janjgir, the lone seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes. It also won in Durg, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund, Raipur and Bilaspur.
BJP state unit chief Vishnudeo Sai, who won Raigarh, told IANS by phone: "The clean sweep in the state was predicted. All credit goes to Raman Singh, his clean image and concerted effort to bring development to the state."
The poll outcome proved to be a shocker for Congress leader and state's first chief minister Ajit Jogi as not only did his wife Renu Jogi lose to former central minister and flamboyant BJP leader Dilip Singh Judeo from Bilaspur but also four of his supporters, for whose nomination he lobbied hard, lost the polls by huge margins.
"Though good news is coming in from Delhi that we are set to return to power but the outcome in the state is clearly shocking for the Congress. We never thought of getting just one seat. The state leaders will sit together soon to analyse the reasons for stunning defeat," Congress state general secretary Ramesh Varlyani told IANS.
In the 2004 parliamentary polls, the BJP won 10 seats while the Congress bagged one. The BJP's strength was later reduced to nine with the Congress winning the Rajnandgaon by-election after BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi was expelled from parliament following the cash-for-query scam.
India's Main Opposition Party Concedes Defeat
May 16, 2009
The main Indian opposition party, the BJP, has conceded general election defeat as results showed the Congress Party-led coalition was heading towards a clear victory.
Congress Party supporters celebrate their lead during the vote counting process
"The Congress has the biggest mandate," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
"I think if Congress wants to compliment some of its leaders in this hour of victory, I think they're entitled to do so."
Earlier, a BJP spokesman said the party was "disappointed" with the numbers of votes received.
Meanwhile, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looks to be heading for a second term.
TV news channels have called the election in his left-of-centre coalition's favour based on more than 70 percent of votes counted.
Reporting from Delhi, Sky's India correspondent Alex Crawford said: "There are people celebrating outside the home of Sonia Gandhi - the President of the Congress party already.
"The so-called Third Front - the alliance of left-wing parties headed by Mayawati, the Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh - does not appear to be doing so well."
The CNN-IBN channel indicated the Congress-led alliance could win more than 240 seats, and the alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party could take 160. The NDTV channel gave Congress 241 and the BJP 165.
If the trends continue it would be a better than expected result for Congress and a clear victory, but still short of the 272 seats needed to govern on its own - meaning the winning party would need to form a coalition.
India has been ruled by coalition governments for most of the last two decades, including the current alliance, led by the Congress party.
The long season produced few central issuesacross the wildly diverse nation of 1.2bn people and 714m eligible voters.
Total voter turnout was approximately 60%, the national election commission said, up slightly from 58% in the last national vote in 2004.
The main Indian opposition party, the BJP, has conceded general election defeat as results showed the Congress Party-led coalition was heading towards a clear victory.
Congress Party supporters celebrate their lead during the vote counting process
"The Congress has the biggest mandate," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
"I think if Congress wants to compliment some of its leaders in this hour of victory, I think they're entitled to do so."
Earlier, a BJP spokesman said the party was "disappointed" with the numbers of votes received.
Meanwhile, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looks to be heading for a second term.
TV news channels have called the election in his left-of-centre coalition's favour based on more than 70 percent of votes counted.
Reporting from Delhi, Sky's India correspondent Alex Crawford said: "There are people celebrating outside the home of Sonia Gandhi - the President of the Congress party already.
"The so-called Third Front - the alliance of left-wing parties headed by Mayawati, the Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh - does not appear to be doing so well."
The CNN-IBN channel indicated the Congress-led alliance could win more than 240 seats, and the alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party could take 160. The NDTV channel gave Congress 241 and the BJP 165.
If the trends continue it would be a better than expected result for Congress and a clear victory, but still short of the 272 seats needed to govern on its own - meaning the winning party would need to form a coalition.
India has been ruled by coalition governments for most of the last two decades, including the current alliance, led by the Congress party.
The long season produced few central issuesacross the wildly diverse nation of 1.2bn people and 714m eligible voters.
Total voter turnout was approximately 60%, the national election commission said, up slightly from 58% in the last national vote in 2004.
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