- Title: INDIA: VOTE COUNTING IN INDIA'S ELECTIONS NEARS AN END
- Date: 3rd March 1998
- Summary: BOMBAY, INDIA (MARCH 3, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV CONGRESS PARTY SUPPORTERS BEATING DRUMS TO CELEBRATE THEIR CANDIDATE'S VICTORY 0.04 2. SV WOMEN DANCING/BAND PLAYING (4 SHOTS) 0.17 SHIMLA (MARCH 3, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 3. SLV SUPPORTERS OF A BJP CANDIDATE CELEBRATING 0.28 4. SV SUPPORTERS DANCING 0.38 5. SV VICTORIOUS BJP CANDIDATE AMONG HIS SUPPORTERS 0.42 NEW DELHI, INDIA (MARCH 3, 1998) 6. SLV EXTERIOR OF RESIDENCE OF CONGRESS PARTY PRESIDENT SITARAM KESRI 0.47 7. CU SIGN BOARD 0.50 8. SLV KESRI IN MEETING 0.56 9. SLV BALWANT SINGH RAMOOWALIA (BLUE TURBAN) OF THE UNITED FRONT GOING TO MEET KESRI (3 SHOTS) 1.03 10. CU A CAMERAMAN TAKING PICTURES 1.05 11. SCU RAMOOWALIA SAYING, "THE UNITED FRONT AND CONGRESS SHOULD JOIN HANDS TO STOP THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY. THE PARTY WHICH HAS MORE NUMBERS SHOULD LEAD THE GOVERNMENT. IF THE CONGRESS HAS MORE SEATS THEN IT SHOULD". (HINDI) 1.15 12. SCU KESRI SAYING, "CHANCES ARE THAT WE WILL FORM THE GOVERNMENT. WE WILL TAKE SUPPORT FROM ALL THE LIKE-MINDED PARTIES. AS THE RESULTS ARE COMING IN, CHANCES ARE WE WILL FORM THE OVERNMENT". (HINDI) 1.27 13. SV CAMREA CREWS FILMING 1.31 14. SV KESRI WAKS AWAY LAUGHING 1.41 RECENT (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 15. LV DAIS FROM WHERE SONIA GANDHI, WIDOW OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER RAJIV GANDHI, IS ADDRESSING A RALLY 1.47 16. SV SONIA ADDRESSING A RALLY 1.52 17. SLV PEOPLE CHEERING 2.01 18. LV SITARAM KESRI, RAHUL GANDHI (SON OF SONIA) AND SONIA GANDHI WAVING 2.06 NEW DELHI (MARCH 3, 1998) 19. SLV ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE OF THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP) WALKING INTO HIS HOME 2.10 20. SV VAJPAYEE SAYING, "THE RESULTS ARE INCOMPLETE. BUT ACCORDING TO THE TRENDS IT IS CLEAR THAT VOTERS WANT TO GIVE BHARTIYA JANATA PARTY AND ITS ALLIES A CHANCE" (HINDI) 2.27 21. SLV PEOPLE WATCHING ELECTION RESULTS DISPLAYED ON A BOARD OUTSIDE A NEWSPAPER OFFICE 2.32 22. CU DISPLAY BOARD 2.38 23. SV PEOPLE WATCHING 2.41 24. CU AN ELECTION RESULT DISPLAY BOARD 3 SHOTS 2.48 25. TAXI DRIVERS WATCHING LIVE TELECAST OF POLL SV RESULTS ON TELEVISION (SITARAM KESRI, PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS PARTY ON SCREEN) 4 SHOTS 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th March 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW DELHI, BOMBAY, AND SHIMLA, INDIA
- City:
- Country: India
- Reuters ID: LVA26J07689S2F9MFA833P5Z3Y4Y
- Story Text: As counting in India's elections nears an end, the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is almost certain to fall short of the minority required to form a government.
By early evening on Tuesday (March 3) the BJP and its allies had won 233 Lower House of parliament seats while the Congress and its support groups have taken 165.
India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Tuesday (March 3) it had started talks with individual lawmakers and small groups to pull together a majority in parliament.
Meanwhile India's Congress party set its sights on forming a government with the support of the party that it forced out of power last year.
So far the BJP are short of the simple majority required to form a government.
The Congress party and its allies were a distant second with 165 seats in its bag and a lead in other two seats.
United Front representative Balwant Singh Ramoowalia told reporters after talks with the Congress party: "The United Front and Congress should join hands to stop the BJP." The multi-party United Front, whose minority government fell in December after Congress withdrew its support, had won 94 seats and were ahead in four others.
Independents and small parties looked set to take 20 seats.
The BJP's ire was raised by statements from communist party leaders that they would seek to rekindle the United Front and Congress partnership.The United Front includes communists, regional and caste-based parties.
Congress supported the United Front alliance after a fractured verdict emerged from elections two years ago, but they fell out last November, forcing the mid-term poll.
The United Front said it was willing to support a Congress-led government to keep the BJP out of power.
However, he said Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former premier Rajiv Gandhi who lifted the party's flagging fortunes by hitting the campaign trail, would continue to play an active role in the party's affairs.
Congress withdrew its lifeblood support for the United Front in November because the alliance refused to eject the DMK, which had been named in a probe report on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, from its ranks.
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