The country is under a heavy security blanket, with 1 lakh army personnel and 1.5 lakh police personnel deployed. Schools, colleges and offices have been shut for three days, beginning Wednesday.

With the Hasina-led Awami league banned from the elections, there is widespread expectation that BNP has a shot at power after 20 years in Opposition, while the Jamaat-e-Islami is emerging to be a formidable challenger to it.

While the Indian government had called for “inclusive” elections — which essentially meant the inclusion of the Awami League — Dhaka’s interim government had not acceded to that. Prof Mohammad Yunus, who leads the interim government, urged the voters to make election day the “birthday of a new Bangladesh”.

BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have been campaigning on their manifestos — both having promised a range of freebies, but also making conciliatory statements. BNP’s manifesto says that the basis of its foreign policy is “Bangladesh Before All”, and doesn’t mention India at all.

“’Friend Yes, Master No’- Establishing Relations with Other States Based on Equality and Self-Dignity,” it said, in an oblique reference to India.

Jamaat has also been conciliatory towards India, as its manifesto reads: “Constructive relations with neighboring countries: Peaceful, friendly, and cooperative relations will be built with neighboring and nearby countries, including India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand based on mutual respect and fairness.”

Significantly, neither BNP nor Jamaat has mentioned Pakistan in its manifesto document, but has talked about building ties with the “Muslim world”.

Voting for the 300 seats in the parliamentary elections will begin at 7.30 am local time (7 am IST) and close at 4.30 pm (4 pm IST) on Thursday. Counting will start immediately, within an hour, and broad trends are expected to come in later on Thursday night.