05-08-2006, 11:07 PM
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Kerala is also expected to go the Left way, according to earlier exit polls. The cliffhanger could be Tamil Nadu, where the ruling AIADMK faced a determined challenge from the DMK and its allies including the Congress.
In Tamil Nadu 2,586 candidates were in the fray, and over 60 percent of the 46 million voters in Tamil Nadu turned up at the 51,534 polling centres.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi voted with his family at the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai where his son M.K. Stalin is a candidate and declared triumphantly: "We will win as many as 200 seats."
AIADMK chief and Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, contesting from Andipatti, voted at the Stella Maris Girls College, also in Chennai. She was circumspect and did not want to make any predictions.
Amongst the other celebrity voters were Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in Sivaganga district and actors Ajit and Shalin who stood for nearly two hours in a long queue at a polling station in Chennai.
The Congress hopes to retain power in Pondicherry and Assam. But most analysts have warned that holding on to Assam would not be easy.
Pondicherry's six million voters were to elect 27 legislators Monday from among 199 in the fray. Three constituencies had elections in the first phase May 3.
According to political analysts, if the Congress loses Assam on top of Kerala, and if Sonia Gandhi's winning margin falls drastically, it would be major blows to the party and to its chief personally.
The Congress campaign in Rae Bareli was in the hands of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi's son and MP Rahul was the campaign manager and spent days there while daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadera was her election agent.
On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi gave a hint of her own disappointment when she blamed the weather for the low voting in Rae Bareli, a family bastion.
"When people can see that there are no major opponents in the fray (apart from Sonia), they seem to lose interest and therefore do not make an effort to come out and vote," she said outside a polling centre in Bachrawan.
"The low turnout is also because of the hot weather. Don't you see how hot it is?" she asked.
Besides the Congress president, others in the fray include Vinay Katiyar of the BJP and Raj Kumar Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party.
Counting of votes will take place in all five states as well as Rae Bareli Thursday. There was no violence Monday barring a shooting incident in Rae Bareli in which a Samajwadi Party activist was injured.
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Kerala is also expected to go the Left way, according to earlier exit polls. The cliffhanger could be Tamil Nadu, where the ruling AIADMK faced a determined challenge from the DMK and its allies including the Congress.
In Tamil Nadu 2,586 candidates were in the fray, and over 60 percent of the 46 million voters in Tamil Nadu turned up at the 51,534 polling centres.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi voted with his family at the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai where his son M.K. Stalin is a candidate and declared triumphantly: "We will win as many as 200 seats."
AIADMK chief and Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, contesting from Andipatti, voted at the Stella Maris Girls College, also in Chennai. She was circumspect and did not want to make any predictions.
Amongst the other celebrity voters were Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in Sivaganga district and actors Ajit and Shalin who stood for nearly two hours in a long queue at a polling station in Chennai.
The Congress hopes to retain power in Pondicherry and Assam. But most analysts have warned that holding on to Assam would not be easy.
Pondicherry's six million voters were to elect 27 legislators Monday from among 199 in the fray. Three constituencies had elections in the first phase May 3.
According to political analysts, if the Congress loses Assam on top of Kerala, and if Sonia Gandhi's winning margin falls drastically, it would be major blows to the party and to its chief personally.
The Congress campaign in Rae Bareli was in the hands of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi's son and MP Rahul was the campaign manager and spent days there while daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadera was her election agent.
On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi gave a hint of her own disappointment when she blamed the weather for the low voting in Rae Bareli, a family bastion.
"When people can see that there are no major opponents in the fray (apart from Sonia), they seem to lose interest and therefore do not make an effort to come out and vote," she said outside a polling centre in Bachrawan.
"The low turnout is also because of the hot weather. Don't you see how hot it is?" she asked.
Besides the Congress president, others in the fray include Vinay Katiyar of the BJP and Raj Kumar Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party.
Counting of votes will take place in all five states as well as Rae Bareli Thursday. There was no violence Monday barring a shooting incident in Rae Bareli in which a Samajwadi Party activist was injured.
Previous Page