India's ruling Hindu nationalist party says it will return to power with a clear mandate and has shrugged off exit polls suggesting the national election will bring in a hung parliament.
There is little doubt the BJP will emerge as the largest party in the new parliament and the front runner to govern.
Exit polls have predicted Prime Minister Vajpayee and his partners in the alliance would win between 245 and 282 seats in parliament with 273 needed to form a government.
All votes will be counted on May 13th and results will be known later that day.
"There will be no hung parliament, the National Democratic Alliance [the governing coalition] will get a clear majority and Atal Behari Vajpayee will rule," Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani told a rally yesterday in the hill state of Uttaranchal, one of those to vote on Monday.
But if the coalition, already made up from more than 20 parties, falls short of 273 seats, it will have to bargain with smaller parties for support to rule.
The main opposition Congress party, led by Ms Sonia Gandhi, the torch-bearer of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is predicted to win 167 to 205 seats nationally.
Congress has fared better than expected, boosted by the entry of the next generation of the dynasty, Gandhi's popular daughter, Priyanka, and son, Rahul.
Major parties were holding strategy meetings ahead of Monday's final and biggest round of voting, when more than 180 of the 545 seats in the lower house will be decided.