India's general elections enters 7th phase

Mumbai goes to polls in India's general elections

NEW DELHI -- India's general elections entered its seventh phase Wednesday, with seven states and two central government-controlled territories going to polls.

This phase is the most crucial as it's seen as a "make or break " day for a number of India's prominent politicians, including the ruling Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

According to the country's independent Election Commission, brisk polling has been recorded in the seventh of the nine-phase general elections in all the seven states, which include the western state of Gujarat, the eastern state of Bihar and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Voting is also taking place in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- where assembly elections are also being held simultaneously. Telangana, a newly created state carved out of Andhra Pradesh, will formally come into existence in June.

Local TV channels showed footage of Modi casting his ballot at a polling booth in Gujarat, before taking picture of his own inked

finger and flashing a small lotus flower, his party's symbol, to cheering crowds.

"The BJP will form a stable government soon. The Congress party has already conceded defeat. It is the end of the mother-son government," Modi said after voting, in a reference to Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Vice President and the scion of Nehru-Gandhi family.

Modi is contesting the general elections from two constituencies -- Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Though a politician is allowed to fight polls from two constituencies, according to the Indian Constitution, the 63-year- old Gujarat Chief Minister will have to relinquish one if he wins both.

Voting is also being held at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, from where Sonia Gandhi is contesting the general elections.

With 814 million eligible voters in India, the election is being held in nine phases over six weeks. It began on April 7, will end on May 12, with results due on May 16.

Opinion polls have suggested that the BJP will form the next government, with Modi as the prime minister, while the Congress, being led by Rahul Gandhi, is facing anti-incumbency due to its inability to tackle corruption and inflation.