The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fixed-dose combination drug compared to two other drugs (monotherapies) in controlling hypertension.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Essential hypertension
• For female subjects, a negative serum pregnancy test
• Ability to provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Night shift workers whose work hours include midnight to 4:00 a.m.
• Secondary hypertension
• An arm size that precludes the use of the digital blood pressure monitor cuff (arm size > 42 cm)
• Renal dysfunction, severe renal impairment, bilateral renal artery stenosis, renal artery stenosis in a solitary kidney, subjects with only 1 kidney, or post-renal transplant subjects
• Female subjects who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant
• History of malignancy within 5 years
• Primary aldosteronism
• Heart failure (NYHA functional class 3-4), hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, or hemodynamically relevant stenosis of the aortic or mitral valve
• Significant cardiac arrhythmias, MI, stroke, CABG, PTCA, unstable angina
• Known hypersensitivity to any component of the study drugs

Other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria may apply