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Critical 3rd phase polling begins in India
April 10, 2014, 6:02 am

India’s ruling Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, displays the ink mark on her finger after casting her vote during parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Thursday, April 10, 2014 [AP]

India’s ruling Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, displays the ink mark on her finger after casting her vote during parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Thursday, April 10, 2014 [AP]

The capital city of Delhi and 10 other States alongwith three Union Territories in India are voting on Thursday to elect parliamentarians in this multiphase casting of ballots across the country that runs until May 12.

Delhi is witnessing a three-cornered fight with the entry of Arvind Kejriwal-led Common Man Party, which made a stunning debut in the Assembly elections last year, battling with the ruling Congress Party and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Results for the 543-seat lower house of parliament will be announced on May 16. The Indian Election Commission has said that 814 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballots this year.

Millions of Indians are voting on Thursday in constituencies that also includes several insurgency-hit areas and the recently riot-torn Muzaffarnagar, where at least 65 people were killed and 51,000 people, mostly Muslims, were displaced.

Suspected Maoist rebels blew up a jeep carrying paramilitary soldiers, killing two and wounding three others early on Thursday, hours before voting began in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, police said.

Maoist rebels, whom Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has previously described as India’s biggest internal security challenge, are present across a wide swath of central and eastern India, in 20 out of the 28 Indian states.

 

Source: Agencies