DATE=9/4/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDIA ELECTION SCENESETTER (L)
NUMBER=2-253452
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: India -- the world's largest democracy -- is
set to go to the polls for the third time in three
years. Staggered elections, which begin on Sunday,
will continue for five weeks. Vote counting begins
October sixth, with a new parliament expected to be
seated by October 21st. From New Delhi, V-O-A's Jim
Teeple reports pre-election polls indicate a majority
of Indians want a stable government to emerge from the
September-October voting.
// CROWD ACTUALITY, IN AND UNDER //
Text: Supporters of Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee are in an optimistic mood, as five weeks of
voting begins for a new 543-seat lower house of
India's parliament. Most polls show the prime
minister's Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition --
known as National Democratic Alliance -- well ahead of
its principal rival, The Congress Party and its
allies.
Mr. Vajpayee's government was defeated by a single
vote in a confidence motion led by Sonia Gandhi's
Congress Party, in April. R-K Tarwal -- a staunch
Vajpayee supporter -- says there is only one issue in
this year's election.
// TARWAL ACTUALITY //
Stability - and it is only the B-J-P and their allies
that can give it, you know.
// END ACTUALITY//
Mr. Vajpayee is riding a crest of personal popularity,
following India's successful defense of its territory
in the Kargil region of Kashmir. An 11-week conflict
nearly brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
Many Indians say the prime minister's handling of the
crisis shows he deserves to lead the next government.
Although Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party is trailing Mr.
Vajpayee's B-J-P / led alliance, Congress Party
activists say the polls do not take into account
India's rural voters, who the party expects to turn
out in large numbers to vote the Congress ticket.
Seema Singh says she will vote for the Congress Party
because she feels Mr. Vajpayee is exploiting the
Kashmir conflict as an election issue.
// SINGH ACTUALITY //
He has made this Kargil issue into propaganda, which
is not right, according to me.
// END ACTUALITY //
One hundred-40-million voters are eligible to cast
their ballots Sunday -- the first of five voting days
to be held, through October third. Voting is
staggered to give security forces time to move across
India's vast expanse - from the high Himalayas to
southern rain forests.
Six-hundred-and-five-million Indians are eligible to
vote in the election. Nearly five million civil
servants and one million members of the security
forces have been deployed to make sure they can. M-S
Gil -- India's chief election commissioner -- says
India's elections are one of its strengths.
// GIL ACTUALITY //
If India has so many cultures ,they are all there (in
parliament), now in their own right and under whatever
banner. And, the strength of India, after 50 years,
is that the parliament and the system of democracy is
still a listening system.
// END ACTUALITY //
There are more than five thousand candidates and 800-
thousand polling voting stations scattered throughout
India.
// REST OPTIONAL //
Candidates are allowed to stand from two different
seats. Much attention will be focused on the two
locations where Sonia Gandhi -- the Italian-born widow
of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi -- is making her
first run for office. Both locations have been
traditional bastions of Congress Party strength.
However, a poll released two days before the election
shows Mrs. Gandhi trailing badly in the Bellary
precinct, in the southern state, Karnataka, which
votes Sunday. (Signed)
Neb / jlt / wd
04-Sep-1999 06:44 AM LOC (04-Sep-1999 1044 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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