POLL-ALL INDIA TRENDS-0900 HRS

New Delhi, May 16 (PTI) United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) was ahead of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in
early trends for 172 seats in the Lok Sabha elections (lower
House of Parliament) as counting of votes in the Lok Sabha
elections was taken up Saturday.

The Congress-led UPA was leading in 73 constituencies
including in southern state of Kerala and northern state of
Rajasthan while the BJP-led NDA was ahead in 59 seats
including in Karnataka, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.

The Left was ahead in four while 'Others' were leading in
36.

Congress' Rahul Gandhi was ahead in Amethi. Sachin
Pilot(Ajmer), P Chidambaram (Sivaganga) and Shashi
Tharoor(Thiruvananthapuram) were also ahead. Prominent
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates who were leading
included Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling.

Congress' Janardhan Poojari and Margaret Alva were
trailing in southern state of Karnataka. India's Commerce and
Industry minister Kamal Nath was trailing in Chindwara in
central state of Madhya Pradesh while former prime minister H
D Deve Gowda was ahead in Hassan in southern state of
Karnataka.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad was
leading in Pataliputra but trailing in Siwan in eastern state
of Bihar.

Among the Congress candidates who were leading in early
trends were Priya Dutt (Mumbai North), Jyotiraditya Scindia
(Guna), Pranab Mukherjee (Jangipur) and Sandeep Dikshit (East
Delhi).

BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani was ahead in
Gandhinagar in western state of Gujarat. His party colleagues
Vinod Khanna, Sushma Swaraj and Varun Gandhi were leading from
Gurdaspur, Vidisha and Pilibhit respectively. PTI