Hindu Nationalists Gain Strength but No Majority in India Vote

NEW DELHI — Voting ended a staggered election for India’s next government in all but a handful of remote districts, with exit polls Saturday suggesting stronger support for Hindu nationalists.

Seven people were killed in election-related violence Saturday, bringing the death toll to at least 75 since elections began Feb. 16, but the day’s violence was mild compared with other voting days.

Two exit polls indicated that the major parties could be headed for another deadlock and more of the same tumultuous politics that forced India to vote three years ahead of schedule.

But the trend was unclear, with the two polls varying widely on how much support there was for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

A state-by-state exit poll broadcast on government-run television showed the party making gains in almost every corner of the country but falling short of the majority needed for a government.

The second poll, shown on a private TV channel, said the BJP would make gains but do far worse than forecast in preelection surveys.

Saturday’s voting completed the election for all but six of the 543 contested seats in Parliament. Vote counting will begin Monday, even before the final districts go to the polls.

More than half of India’s 600 million voters have cast ballots in the election, which was staggered over six days to give security forces time to move across a country where religious, ethnic and caste differences often erupt into violence.

In the state of Jammu and Kashmir, armed troops confronted Muslim separatists boycotting the polls Saturday, and reluctant citizens complained that soldiers forced them to vote against their will. Some children said they were taken to polling booths and compelled to cast ballots registered to other people.

In Kashmir’s Baramulla district, one of the six districts yet to vote, gunmen ambushed activists from the National Conference party, which governs the state, killing two of them.

Two other people were killed and 12 injured by a hand grenade in the town of Sopore, police said.

In Bihar, leftist militants detonated land mines that killed three police officers patrolling booths where balloting was being repeated because of violence during an earlier round of voting, Press Trust of India reported.

Unlike previous election days, few clashes were reported between political rivals outside polling stations. But mutual accusations of vote-rigging flew among the parties.