kammula@plato.engr.umbc.edu (Chandra Sekhar Kammula) (06/13/91)
Subject: Forwarded mail Approved: gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 14:38:22 EDT Status: RO ************************************************* Source: [NEWSCLIPS/INFO.SERVICES.MAIL] MAIL/USA ************************************************* Subj: INDIA RESUMES ELECTIONS DELAYED BY GANDHI ASSASSINATION NEW DELHI, INDIA (JUNE 12) UPI - Indians voted in the second round of parliamentary elections Wednesday, and a new survey projected the Congress (I) Party would benefit from a sympathy wave because of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The second round of voting, delayed for three weeks following Gandhi's assassination, began at 7 a.m. One-fifth of the electorate, about 106 million people, were deciding the fate of 1,801 candidates vying for 113 parliamentary seats. About 40 percent of the seats to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, were decided in the opening round of the elections May 20, one day before Gandhi was killed by a bomb explosion as he campaigned for Congress (I) Party candidates in south India. The final day of voting is Saturday. Officials are scheduled to begin counting the ballots early Sunday, but initial returnre not expected until Sunday afternoon. India's elections occur over three days to ensure adequate security. Nearly 240 people have been killed since the current election campaign began, making the 1991 vote the bloodiest since India gained independence from Britain in 1947. Security was tight across the country for the second round of voting, with 120,000 police officers and 20 companies of paramilitary troops being deployed in the Bombay region alone. Gandhi was assassinated May 21 as he arrived for a campaign rally in southern Tamil Nadu state. As he was being greeted, a woman offered him a garland of flowers, bent to touch his feet in seeming reverence and then triggered a bomb strapped to her waist. The explosion killed Gandhi, his assassin and 16 other people. Investigators believe the killing was a conspiracy and have identified at least five people at the rally that night believed to be involved in the assassination. Police suspect a Sri Lankan militant group - the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - was behind the killing, despite denials by the organization. The Times of India quoted official sources Wednesday as saying one of the suspects was believed to be a man named Raghu, thought to be the Tigers' intelligence chief. The assassination left the Congress (I) Party in disarray. The group took a week to name a new president, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and has refused to say who would be prime minister if it wins a majority, hoping to delay a divisive power struggle until after the elections. Opinion polls published before Gandhi's assassination predicted the Congress would win the largest number of seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha but would fall short of an absolute majority, forcing it to seek partners for a coalition government. A new poll published Wednesday by the Times of India newspaper predicted the Congress (I) would benefit from a wave of symp votes as a result of the former premier's assassination. The pollster, who earlier predicted Congress would win 233 seats in the Lok Sabha, said the sympathy vote would give the party a further boost, edging it closer to the 273 posts it needs to command a majority of the house. The poll also found that Gandhi's Italian-born widow, Sonia, was the most popular candidate for Congress (I) Party president and prime minister. Sonia Gandhi, who helped her husband campaign but dislikes politics, rejected a Congress move to make her party president immediately after the assassination. The poll's findings came amid a flap over Sonia Gandhi's perception of her adopted homeland. While trying to mine the sympathy vote, the Congress Monday released a letter she wrote to the new party president. ''May my husband's ultimate sacrifice for our beloved country be a source of great strength to each Congress man and woman,'' said a version of the letter printed in the Times of India. ''Let it infuse each one of them with greater determination to work ... toward fulfilling his dream of a strong, united India.'' Reports Wednesday said the letter distributed to the press initially had Sonia Gandhi referring to ''his beloved country'' instead of ''our beloved country.'' Party officials noticed the phrasing afterward and called reporters to alter the wording. ''The question of Mrs. Gandhi's empathy for and identification with the country of her adoption at a time when the party wants to project her as the supreme leader thus comes into focus,'' the Financial Express newspaper said. END OF ARTICLE ==============