Third phase sees 50-55% polling

MANDATE 2004/ Violence reported in J&K, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh

With just 50-55 per cent polling in today's phase of general elections, both the Congress and the BJP asserted the "end" of each other's existence, but the combative facade camouflaged nervousness and anxiety.

Although Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued to exude confidence after he had cast his vote in the third round of the elections and predicted that NDA would get 300 seats in the Lok Sabha, party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan dampened spirits somewhat by conceding that the BJP "could take help from smaller political parties in case we fall short of a couple of seats (to reach the 272 figure)".

Yesterday 83 constituencies went to the polls in this phase of voting.

Mahajan's statement showed how jittery the BJP still was after elections were held to seats that could represent the difference between failure and success in the NDA's efforts to form a government at the centre.

In the Congress, party spokesman Anand Sharma predicted "disintegration" of the NDA after this phase.

BJP leaders will meet tomorrow to review the performance of the party in this phase of the elections and draw up the strategy for the fourth and final phase on 10 May that will involve 182 seats.

The meeting will be chaired by Party President M Venkaiah Naidu, and will be attended by General Secretaries Sanjay Joshi, Pramod Mahajan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi besides Law Minister Arun Jaitley. Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani may also attend the meeting, party sources said.

Yesterday the elections were racked with violence. Militants detonated an IED in Ananatnag and launched grenade attacks hours after J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had cast his vote at his village Bijbehera. At least one person was killed and 18 were injured.

Ten people were arrested in Madhepura including a presiding officer and six homeguards for bogus voting and the polling in one booth was cancelled.Stray incidents of violence were also reported from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Everything hinges on this phase of the election both for the BJP and the Congress.

It represents a political validation for UP BJP leader Kalyan Singh and whether or not his strategy of selling the BJP as an inclusivist middle caste party has worked.

This phase of the election will decide whether the upper castes - the Brahmins and Rajputs - have returned to the Congress and whether Mulayam Singh Yadav's attempts at social engineering by forging an alliance of Rajput and Yadav votes have succeeded.

How much the tribal vote in Madhya Pradesh has moved away from the BJP and whether the beneficiary of this shift will be the Congress will also be decided on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Lucknow), UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), Union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi (Allahabad), Shahnawaz Hussain (Kishanganj, Bihar), Digvijay Singh (Banka), Prahlad Patel and Congress veteran Kamalnath (Chhindwara), Sharad Yadav and RJD Chief Laloo Yadav (Madhepura) and film star Dharmendra (Bikaner) were among those whose constituencies went to the polls yesterday.