Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday predicted victory for his Hindu nationalist-led coalition as up to 59 million people voted in the penultimate leg of marathon elections.
Ten hours of voting in 83 seats across seven states ended at 5:00 pm (1130 GMT), signalling the conclusion of 66 percent of the vote for 543 parliamentary seats which began on April 20.
The Election Commission said up to 55 percent of 107.26 million eligible voters exercised their franchise.
The highest turnout of up to 80 percent was reported from the far-eastern state of Nagaland which sends a single MP to parliament.
Panel spokesman A.N. Jha said Kashmir's Anantnag-Pulwama reported the lowest turnout of 16 percent, which analysts attributed to a poll boycott call by Islamic separatists and Muslim guerrillas.
One person was killed and 33 injured in attacks on Anantnag poll stations, police said.
The final leg of balloting, in 182 constituencies, will be held May 10 and results of the world's biggest democratic exercise involving 670 million voters are due three days later.
Vajpayee made his choice by pressing a button on an electronic voting machine in Lucknow, part of Hindi-speaking northern India where his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to make its strongest showing.
"We should get 272 seats very comfortably. I am confident about that," said the 79-year-old prime minister, referring to the required parliamentary majority.
An exit poll broadcast as voting ended said Vajpayee's ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could bag up to 282 seats in the balloting held so far in 361 constituencies, appearing to confirm his convictions.
The exit poll by Star News television said the opposition Congress party and its allies were likely to trail Vajpayee's NDA with up to 179 seats - well short of the majority needed to form government.
Another poll by Aajtak television network said the NDA may fall short of a majority with only 266 seats - a prediction the BJP rejected.
"This round of voting is a stamp of approval on the clear-cut policies of the NDA and its leadership and at the same time it will expose the Congress, which neither has any issue nor any leader," BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, campaigning Wednesday for the last phase of the vote in the southern city of Cochin, claimed religious minorities had become targets of attack by the BJP.
"Their institutions are under siege. Textbooks are being re-written," she told supporters at a rally.
"Unemployment has increased as never before, farmers and plantation workers are under distress and the middle class are finding their earnings wiped due to various scams," she added.
Observers say the electoral fortunes of both the NDA and the Congress-led grouping could hinge on Wednesday's results as voters in 79 constituencies of four Hindi-speaking states that went to polls are polarised on lines of caste and religion.
Vajpayee called this year's election early, hoping a bountiful harvest and peace moves with Pakistan would win his NDA a new five-year term.
The Press Trust of India reported two deaths in the eastern state of Bihar as television channels broadcast street brawls and running battles between police and gunmen in the lawless region.
Last week television exit poll predictions of a hung parliament after the third round of voting on April 26 battered the stock market.
The election is the first to be conducted entirely with electronic machines, but there have been numerous reports of logistical problems.