After voting ends, exit polls put Congress ahead

Voting in India's marathon elections ended Wednesday, with notoriously inaccurate early exit polls giving the ruling Congress party an edge over the opposition bloc led by the Hindu nationalist BJP. The official result will be announced Saturday.Voting in India's marathon elections ended Wednesday, with early exit polls giving the ruling Congress party and its allies a slight edge over the opposition bloc led by the Hindu nationalist BJP.Neither grouping was seen as getting close to the 272 seats required to secure a parliamentary majority.Exit polls have proved notoriously inaccurate in previous Indian elections, and the official result will only be announced by the Election Commission on Saturday.The first two surveys carried by news channels both put the Congress-led coalition ahead, with one predicting a final tally of 191 seats, against 180 for the alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The other put the lead at 195 seats to 189 seats.Saturday's count is expected to trigger a frantic round of political horse-trading as both alliances scrabble among a multitude of regional parties for the extra partners needed to form a viable government."Everything will depend on numbers," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged at a press briefing this week.The world's largest democratic exercise wrapped up when polling stations across seven states closed after the fifth and final phase of the month-long ballot, which began way back on April 16.Whatever formation emerges to govern India's 1.1 billion people, observers say it will likely be an unwieldy coalition that will struggle to present a united front at a time when India is facing a sharp economic downturn and numerous foreign policy challenges.