Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee warned of political instability unless voters return his ruling alliance to power with a parliamentary majority as he wrapped up campaigning ahead of the final round of national elections.
In the last few days on the campaign trail, Vajpayee appeared worried that his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could lose its majority and be forced into horse-trading with smaller parties to form a government.
"The decision you have to make is whether we need a stable, strong, lasting and performing government, or instability," Vajpayee said at his last election rally in the northern city of Ludhiana, in Punjab.
Although the NDA was far ahead of the main opposition Congress party and its allies, most pollsters have predicted from the previous four rounds of voting that the 11-party coalition will not win the 272 seats required for an outright majority.
In order to form a government, the NDA would then need to rope in new partners from smaller groups. That raises the risk of an unstable government, which may not last the full five-year term or be able to implement its policies.
Today, 16 states vote for 182 of parliament's 543 elected seats.
After dismissing the exit polls conducted by private TV stations, Vajpayee spent the last weekend of the campaign warning of political chaos and instability if voters don't give his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies a strong mandate.
He said the economy and the country's development will suffer in the absence of a stable government.
"If the NDA does not get a majority, the country will slip into political anarchy," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saying on Friday. The opposition "will not be able to run the government ... There will be a prime minister every six months," he said.
Vote counting begins Thursday and the results are expected more quickly than in previous polls because a million electronic voting machines have been installed around the country, absolving the need for manual counting.
There are 670 million people eligible to vote, and the turnout has averaged above 55 percent.
The main opposition Congress party remained upbeat, with pollsters predicting a big improvement in its seat tally in the last phase of voting.
"We have to start a new era, make a new history," the party's Italian-born leader, Sonia Gandhi, told a crowd of 10,000 at a rally in the Indian capital, New Delhi, on Saturday. "Bring victory to Congress, defeat BJP, save the nation," she said.
A survey by the Indian Express-New Delhi Television (NDTV) network, published Saturday, said Vajpayee's NDA was expected to win 240-260 seats. Congress and its allies were expected to collect 190-210 seats, with the remaining 90-110 seats going to smaller groups and independents, the survey indicated.
The Indian Express-NDTV survey assumed a 3 percent margin of error.
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