Slender lead for Congress as voting ends

By Surojit Gupta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The ruling Congress-led coalition was slightly ahead of the opposition alliance as voting ended in India's general election but both fell short of a parliamentary majority, TV projections said.

A raft of exit polls on Wednesday showed either alliance would need new partners, renewing concerns that a shaky coalition would emerge as Asia's emerging powerhouse faces economic slowdown and instability in neighbouring Pakistan.

The projections could spark market jitters in the days ahead of the official results, due on Saturday.

Exit polls have had a mixed record in the past among the electorate of more than 700 million people. They were way off the mark in the last 2004 general election.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party-led coalition is ahead with 185-205 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament, an exit poll by CNN-IBN television said.

An alliance led by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would take 165 to 185 seats, leaving both the main political formations far short of the 272 needed for a majority.

"We are looking at political uncertainty and horse-trading," said Amulya Ganguli, a New Delhi-based political commentator.

If confirmed by actual results, the outcome would mean a fall in Congress alliance seats compared with 2004 and a boost in seats for the BJP-led alliance, muddying waters further.