April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ties between India’s Congress party and an ally in its governing coalition from eastern Bihar state have broken down, denting efforts to build an alliance capable of winning a majority in elections, the Indian Express reported.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused cabinet colleague Lalu Prasad, head of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, of using Congress like a “doormat,” the newspaper reported, and said he was unlikely to be part of the next government should the ruling bloc be re-elected.

Prasad, the railway minister, backtracked on his support for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue as premier, saying members of the governing United Progressive Alliance will select a leader after the election, the newspaper said.

Indians are voting in a general election which ends on May 13 with opinion polls showing neither the Congress party-led UPA nor the main opposition -- led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party -- winning a clear majority. The second round of voting takes place tomorrow.

The Economic Times said Prasad told reporters in Patna, the capital of Bihar, that Congress was a spent force in northern states that make up the so-called Hindi heartland.

In Brief:

* About 350 passengers were taken hostage by suspected Maoists who seized a train in the eastern state of Jharkhand. Left-wing guerrillas, known as Naxalites, are active in at least 11 of the country’s 28 states and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called them the greatest threat to India’s internal security. The passengers were later released.

Latest Comments:

“It’s all work, work, work - work is his religion,” the Times of India quoted Gursharan Kaur, the wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as saying in a television interview.

Poll Schedule:

The remaining rounds of voting after April 23 will be held on April 30, May 7 and May 13. The voting is staggered to enable security forces to fan out across the country to secure ballot stations.

Counting of votes will take place in all constituencies on May 16.

Opinion Polls:

The elections will probably result in a fragmented verdict with no existing political alliance able to form a government, a poll by Star News-Nielsen said before the voting began on April 16. The Congress party-led ruling coalition may win 203 of the 543 seats being contested to 191 for the opposition alliance headed by the BJP, it said.

A survey in India Today magazine in the first week of April showed the United Progressive Alliance, headed by the Congress, may win 190 to 199 seats, while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance may get between 172 and 181 seats.

On March 22, an opinion poll by Star News and AC Nielsen Co. said the UPA would win 257 seats, short of the 272 needed for a majority. The NDA would have 184 lawmakers in the new parliament.

Economy:

India’s $1.2 trillion economy expanded 5.3 percent in the three months to Dec. 31 from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 2003, after a 7.6 percent gain in the previous quarter as the worst global recession since World War II lowered output and demand for Indian goods overseas.

Declining overseas orders and shrinking local demand may make it difficult for India to achieve its 7.1 percent growth estimate for the year that ended March 31, according to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the prime minister’s top economic adviser. The current estimate would be the slowest pace of expansion since the 12 months to March 2003.

Prime Minister Singh’s government has announced three fiscal stimulus packages.

India’s annual inflation rate slowed to 0.18 percent in the week to April 4 from a year earlier, the slowest pace in at least two decades.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 22, 2009 03:13 EDT