A personal message to News Online users from Daniel Lak

Correspondents Mike Wooldridge and Daniel Lak have been leading the reporting, along with Sanjeev Srivastava, and former Delhi Correspondent Andrew Whitehead.

They are looking at the main issues and reporting from key battlegrounds.

In addition, they have been supported by an extensive network of Indian journalists, with detailed reporting of events across the country.

Mike Wooldridge has been reporting from India for three years. Before that he was a highly-respected religious affairs correspondent for the BBC World Service.

He has an established background as a foreign correspondent, with spells in Johannesburg and Nairobi.

It was Mike who first brought the tragic story of the Ethiopian famine to a BBC audience in the mid-1980s.

Canadian Daniel Lak first became interested in South Asia through its cuisine rather than news. As a correspondent in the region since 1992, when he first went to Islamabad, he has had plenty of time to become an expert.

Daniel describes the challenges ahead of him during his remaining time in Delhi as being: "To get up to the Himalayas as often as possible, to show just how India is becoming such a crucial player in the global economy, to see more of my family and to stay sane even as the BBC demands more and more of me."

Andrew Whitehead, one of the presenters for the South Asian edition of The World Today, has spent five years in Delhi for the BBC.

He has reported from across the South Asia region - and from almost every Indian state.

His radio series India: A People Partitioned won a bronze award at the 1998 New York Festival.

Prior to his India posting, Andrew was the World Service Political Correspondent for four years where he covered both the downfall of Margaret Thatcher and the 1992 UK general election.

Andrew will be broadcasting live from India in the week before the count. Sanjeev Srivastava, Bombay Correspondent, has worked for the BBC World Service since 1992.