One killed in state poll violence

Raipur: Suspected Maoist insurgents triggered blasts and opened fire to scare away voters, killing one policeman on Friday as elections in a central Indian state came to a halt in some rural pockets, officials said.

Armed rebels blocked roads and snatched electronic voting machines in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh state, a hotbed of Maoist activities.

The election in Chhattisgarh is a key test for the Congress party, which is fighting the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the vote.

One policeman was killed and four others were wounded in two separate landmine blasts triggered by rebels in Bastar district. Rebels also opened fire in 15 different places to scare away voters.

Voting concluded peacefully in other parts of the state, officials said.

At least 55 per cent of the 6.4 million people voted on Friday, the first of the two-phase election process in the state, an Election Commission official said in New Delhi.

India kicked off a month-long period of state elections yesterday, a precursor to the general election in early 2009 that will pit the ruling Congress-led coalition against the BJP.

Apart from Chhattisgarh, the states that will go to the polls are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Delhi and the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, which will vote in stages for security reasons.

In Kashmir, thousands of troops will guard the vote in one of India's most troubled regions, where separatist leaders, many sent to jail without trial in the run-up to the vote, have called for a boycott.

The Maoists in Chhattisgarh had also called for a boycott of polls and asked voters to stay away from elections. Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and regularly attack government property and policemen.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as the gravest threat to India's internal security. Thousands of people have been killed in the insurgency, which began in the late 1960s and stretches through rural pockets of east, central and southern India.

Polling for the first phase of assembly elections in 39 constituencies in Chhattisgarh ended at 5pm yesterday with a low turnout in the insurgency-hit Bastar region compared to the rest of the state.

The voting for Bastar's 12 seats, which was held between 7am and 3pm, was marred by violence with low turnout in most constituencies. But it picked up during the closing hours despite road blockades by Maoist guerrillas.

In contrast, the election exercise went off smoothly in the constituencies outside the region. There was brisk polling in the districts of Durg, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund, Dhamtari and Kabirdharm.

While the final voting figures were being put together, over 35 per cent people had exercised their franchise by 2:30pm.

Dantewada district police chief Rahul Sharma said: "Maoists triggered a string of explosions and fired upon policemen at dozens of places in which four cops were injured at two separate places in Konta and Dantewada constituencies." Konta and Dantewada are in Bastar.

Officials said violence disrupted polling at 17 booths in the Bastar region where repolling is likely to be ordered. But they also claimed the voters did eventually come out to vote, despite the apprehensions during the day after violence in several areas.

"The voters defied the Maoists and showed courage to come out in Bastar region's five districts, though polling was disrupted at 17 booths because of firing and electronic voting machines [EVMs] were looted," said R.S. Vishwakarma, Bastar commissioner.

Friday's polling sealed the electoral fortunes of chief minister Raman Singh, opposition leader and Congress candidate Mahendra Karma and assembly Speaker Premprakash Pandey, besides four ministers.