Exit polls point to Vajpayee failure

Indian exit polls showed tonight that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ruling coalition may fall short of winning a majority of parliament seats after voting in the fourth round of the general election.

The five-phase elections in the world’s biggest democracy began on April 20 will end on May 10.

If the exit polls are prove correct, Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance would have to draw more small parties into the coalition, making it more likely to fray.

Some of the country’s most violent regions voted today and three deaths were reported by the time polls closed, but Deputy Election Commissioner AN Jha said voting was relatively peaceful.

Half of the 107 million eligible voters in the seven states participated, he said.

Vajpayee’s coalition was strongly favoured ahead of the start of elections on the strength of a booming economy and peace overtures with rival Pakistan. But opinion and exit polls have since shown his coalition losing seats overall.

Exit polls today showed that trend continuing.

“I am not nervous” about exit polls, Vajpayee said before voting in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

However, the general secretary of his Bharatiya Janata Party, Pramod Mahajan, acknowledged the governing coalition might not win enough seats to form a majority government.

Vajpayee, 79, was opposed in Lucknow by an old friend and former member of his Cabinet, Ram Jethmalani, 80, who questioned the prime minister’s mental and physical fitness to lead the nation of one billion, and objected to the pro-Hindu agenda of the premier’s party.

The main opposition Congress party led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi argues that the government’s prosperity drive has been limited to cities and hasn’t touched the lives of people in villages, where most Indians live.

In its exit poll, Star News projected Vajpayee’s coalition getting 270 to 282 of parliament’s 543 elected seats, with 167 to 179 for Congress and 87 to 89 for smaller parties. Aaj Tak projected 266 votes for Vajpayee’s coalition and 175 for Congress and its allies, with smaller parties getting 102.