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The Indian parliament reopened Monday for what is expected to be a stormy monsoon session, with the first item on the agenda being the election of the country's next president.

Although the opening session lasted just 10 minutes before being adjourned for the day in respect for sitting MPs who had died since the last session, voting was to continue throughout the day.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani were among the first to cast their votes in the presidential voting.

"The brisk polling started at 10:00 am and will continue until 5:00 pm. The votes will be counted on July 18," said a parliamentary official.

Political parties, except communist groups, have agreed to vote for Abdul Kalam, the architect of India's arsenal of missiles, as the next president.

Kalam is opposed by 87-year-old feminist and freedom fighter Lakshmi Sahgal who had raised a women's battalion for the Indian National Army in Singapore which fought against India's British colonial rulers during the 1940s.

"It is nice that there is a contest," a confident Kalam, who is likely to win the poll after gaining the support of the main political parties, told reporters in parliament.

India has a special electoral college that votes for the president, which includes members of state legislative assemblies and the lower house of parliament.

The weekend massacre of 28 Hindus by Muslim gunmen in Kashmir is expected to dominate proceedings when the house reconvenes on Tuesday.

Advani who had been expected to deliver the government's response to the massacre -- which it blames on Pakistan -- during Monday's session, said later he would now do so on Tuesday.

Most sessions of the Indian parliament have lost days to acrimonious debates on controversial issues and analysts said the acrimony this time around would be over a wide range of issues.

"These mutually-hostile politicians are grinding their axes and it will be a bitter blend of subjects -- from India-Pakistan tensions to foreign investments in the print media -- that will govern the session," said political analyst Anand Ojha.

"POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Act) and the government's privatisation policies will also steal precious time."

The government pushed POTA through parliament this year despite resistance.

The law has already boomeranged on the ruling coalition as a leader of one of the alliance parties has been arrested under its provisions by an opposition-ruled state.

Vajpayee's administration is also facing flak for its privatisation of state-owned enterprises with the opposition accusing the ruling coalition of selling even profit-making industries.

The monsoon session is expected to debate 37 pieces of draft legislation -- a majority of which could be hotly contested in the fractious parliament's 545-seat lower house.

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