India concludes marathon election

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - Voting for the marathon election in India concluded on Sunday. The results are expected to be announced on May 23.

The turnout for the seventh and final phase of the election was 61 percent, the Election Commission said.

More than 8,000 candidates were contesting for 542 parliamentary constituencies across the country for the lower house of parliament.

Incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal on Sunday. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Nilanjan Roy in Diamond Harbour constituency alleged that his car was vandalized, news agency Press Trust of India reported. Similar reports also came in from Jadavpur constituency, where BJP candidate Anupam Hazra's car came under attack by unidentified men.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to win a comfortable majority, exit polls have predicted.

According to an amalgamation of all surveys curated by broadcaster NDTV, NDA may easily win 300 out of 542 seats of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament).

The poll of polls, an aggregate of exit polls so far, gives the NDA 298, the Congress and its allies 128 seats.

With the world’s largest electorate -- nearly 900 million -- the elections in India were held in seven phases spread over 38 days.