Lok Sabha Election End,s Result today

Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 11:22 am

Lok Sabha Election End,s Result today NEW DELHI: India starts counting the hundreds of millions of votes cast in its marathon election on Saturday, with all signs pointing to a hung parliament and a shaky coalition government.

The world’s largest electorate may have spoken but even once the ballots are tallied up it could be hard to decipher exactly what it said, with no clear winner expected to emerge.

Exit polls have given an edge to the alliance led by the ruling Congress party, with most predicting it will win anywhere between five and 20 more seats than the main opposition bloc headed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). One poll suggested the margin could be as high as 40 seats.

But neither group is expected to get close to the 272 seats needed for a parliamentary majority, leaving the balance of power in the hands of a multitude of regional parties. The use of electronic voting machines means the counting should be completed by Saturday afternoon.

By tradition, the party winning the most seats has first right to try to form a government but both Congress and the BJP are sure to make a play for power no matter which emerges as the largest single party on Saturday. If the two main alliances fail to make a breakthrough, the path to power might open up for the Third Front. But such a coalition would suffer from the large number of disparate parties it would need to form a government.

The wheeling and dealing is likely to last some time with June 2 the constitutional deadline for forming the new government. This election has come at a pivotal time for India and its 714-million strong electorate. After five successive years of near-double digit growth that lent the country the international clout it has long sought, the economy has been badly hit by the global downturn.

Lok Sabha Election End,s Result today

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