CONGRESS RALLIES HARD TO MAKE GAINS IN LAST TWO PHASES

29 April 2004, (ANI)

Mohanlalganj, Apr 28 (ANI): Congress party on Wednesday stepped up campaign in Uttar Pradesh as the exit polls narrowed the winning margins for the ruling BJP.



India has held three rounds of a five-stage election involving 670 million voters, that pits the BJP-led coalition against the Congress.



Exit polls after the third round of voting on Monday indicated the BJP and its allies were still ahead of Congress but they could fall short of the halfway mark of 273 seats needed to form a government in the 545-member lower house of parliament.



Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, addressing a public meeting at Mohanlalganj, on the outskirts of Lucknow, blamed the federal government for ignoring the poor.



'You all know that the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has not done anything for the backward class people,' she said.



The polls end on May 10. Votes will be counted on May 13 and the results are expected the same day.



The BJP-led coalition has brushed aside the exit polls saying on Tuesday it would make strong gains in the final rounds of voting.



The poll news had rattled financial markets, worried that a weakened BJP may backtrack on economic reforms and could slow rapid economic growth in the world's second most populous nation. (ANI)