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Campaigning for first phase of the general election ends

Campaigning ended today for the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on Sunday in 145 constituencies spread over 10 states and five Union territories.

Electioneering also ended at 1700 IST for the first round of simultaneous assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

At stake on Sunday are the electoral fortunes of Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Bellary, Karnataka), Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani (Gandhinagar), Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam (Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu) and former finance ministers Manmohan Singh (South Delhi) and P Chidambaram (Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu).

Canvassing was by and large peaceful, save for some sporadic incidents of violence in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

Polling was rescheduled for October 3 in Narasaraopet, Andhra Pradesh, following a bomb blast in the house of Panchayat Raj Minister Kodela Sivaprasada Rao that killed four persons, including an independent candidate.

During campaigning, the nation's focus was on Bellary where Gandhi's maiden bid to enter the Lok Sabha is being challenged by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj.

While Swaraj stayed put in the constituency during the two-week campaign period, the Congress president visited Bellary thrice to seek votes from the electorate which has returned the party's nominees in all the previous 12 general elections.

While Gandhi was virtually the lone star campaigner for the Congress, the BJP had several, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani and Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, to campaign for its nominees.

The BJP harped on the victory in Kargil and the foreign origin of Gandhi, while the Congress attacked it on the alleged intelligence failure that led to the Kargil conflict, the sugar and telecom scams, and Information Minister Pramod Mahajan's tasteless equation of Sonia Gandhi with Monica Lewinsky.

As many as 162.21 million voters will decide the fate of 1,068 candidates in Andhra Pradesh (11 out of 42 seats), Goa (2), Gujarat (26), Haryana (10), Jammu and Kashmir (2/6), Karnataka (15/28), Maharashtra (24/48), Punjab (13), Rajasthan (10/25), Tamil Nadu (19/39), Delhi (7) and the Union territories of Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Daman & Diu, and Pondicherry (one each).

Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa and the five Union territories will be through with the election on Sunday.

Assembly elections to 115 out of 224 seats in Karnataka, 144/288 in Maharashtra and 84/294 in Andhra Pradesh will also be held on September 5.

Electronic voting machines will be used for the first time in a general election in 46 parliamentary constituencies in 17 states and Union territories in the five-phased election.

Counting of votes will be taken up on October 6 and the process will be completed by October 10.

The second phase of polling is scheduled for September 11.

Campaigning for the seven seats in Delhi, where former chief ministers Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma, Union Urban Affairs Minister Jagmohan, former Union finance minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Working Committee members R K Dhawan and Meira Kumar are contesting, was enlivened by Bollywood glamour.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where two (Srinagar and Ladakh) of the six seats will go to the polls on Sunday, the campaigning was marred by violence with an unsuccessful attempt to kill the daughter of former Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti, who is an independent candidate in Srinagar.

Security forces recovered more than 130kg of explosives during the campaign period.

About 996,000 voters are eligible to vote in the first phase of polling. Omar Abdullah (National Conference), son of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, is also contesting the Srinagar seat.

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary V Gopalasamy aka Vaiko and All-India Congress Committee secretary Mani Shankar Aiyar are among those in the fray for 19 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu where 21.5 million voters will decide the fate of 153 candidates.

Polling in Andhra Pradesh will involve 83 candidates for the Lok Sabha and 667 for the state assembly and an electorate of 13.8 million, including 6.94 million women. Here, the ruling Telugu Desam Party has allied with the BJP while the Congress is contesting alone.

Political heavyweights like Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, state Congress chief Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and former chief minister and CWC member Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy figure in the first phase of the three-phase polling.

In Karnataka, where 15 of the 28 Lok Sabha and 115 of the 224 assembly constituencies go to the polls in the first phase, Vajpayee and Advani along with Naidu, Chief Minister J H Patel and Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde took part in the campaigning.

Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar, who is aiming for a hat-trick from Bangalore South, took to hi-tech campaigning using the Internet, compact discs and videotapes to highlight his work.

Campaigning reached fever pitch in Rajasthan with Sonia Gandhi and Vajpayee making extensive tours in all 10 Lok Sabha constituencies where polling will be held on Sunday. The fate of 68 candidates will be sealed as 13.1 million voters, including 6.9 million women, exercise their franchise.

Manvendra Singh (Barmer, BJP), a former journalist and son of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, and Buta Singh (Congress, Jalore), are among the candidates in the fray.

Advani, former Union minister Kashiram Rana, state BJP chief Rajendrasinh Rana, former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela and former chief election commissioner T N Seshan are among the candidates contesting the election on Sunday for all 26 seats.

A total of 29.4 million voters will pick their representatives from among 159 candidates. EVMs will be used for the poll in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Campaigning for half of the 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra ended today. In the fray are 130 candidates for the Lok Sabha and 1,058 for the assembly. Former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil Chakurkar and AICC general secretary Sushilkumar Shinde are among the prominent candidates.

As many as 25.9 million voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase.

In Punjab, campaigning for the 13 seats remained peaceful and largely confined to small public meetings and door-to-door canvassing.

Over 15.68 million voters will decide the electoral fortunes of 120 candidates. Prominent among them are Union Food Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, former Union minister Roshan Lal Bhatia, cinestar-turned-politician Vinod Khanna and former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra.

The Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine, the Congress, and a third front comprising the Gurcharan Singh Tohra faction of the SAD, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Akali Dal (Amritsar), Akali Dal (Panthic) and Akali Dal (Democratic) are the main contenders.

An electorate of over 11 million will decide the future of 114 candidates contesting the 10 seats in Haryana. Prominent among them are former chief minister Bhajan Lal, state Congress president Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ajay Chautala, son of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, and Surinder Singh, son of ex-chief minister Bansi Lal. The Congress is contesting all 10 seats while the ruling Indian National Lok Dal and the BJP are contesting five each in alliance.

UNI

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