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At least 14 die in Indian poll violence

PATNA: At least 14 people were killed in the crime-racked eastern Indian state of Bihar as first the phase of polling began both there and in the remote state of Manipur.

Authorities had feared attacks from caste militias, Maoist guerrillas or tribal insurgents and put security forces on standby in Bihar after outlawed groups called for a poll boycott.

"So far three violent incidents have been reported," Bihar's Director-General of Police, K.A. Jacob, told Reuters.

Jacob said 14 people were killed in two landmine blasts and in an attack on paramilitary troops in different parts of the state late on Friday and Saturday. The dead included 10 security personnel and an election official.

The elections to the state assemblies are the first since federal elections in October, in which a 20-party coalition led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power for a new five-year term.

BJP officials say state election results will not reflect on federal government performance as these polls are dominated by local issues.

State elections in India occur at different times, but state assemblies normally serve five-year terms.

Police outnumbered voters in tribal-dominated Himalayan district of Manipur, where the secessionist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) had called for a poll boycott.

"These areas are dangerous," Manipur's minister for general administration, N. Bihari Singh, told Reuters at a village near Imphal.

Singh, surrounded by 10 armed commandos, said reports of "disturbances" were reaching Imphal from the hill districts of the state, but details were not available. Paramilitaries inspected vehicles on the highways and police guarded some 1,090 polling stations.

At Urangpat, 30 km (20 miles) from the state capital Imphal, armed men raided a polling booth shortly before midnight and took away the ballot boxes, police said.

Tribals wrapped in their traditional red-and-green shawls said polling officials, fearing further violence, had left the village. First phase polls began on Saturday in Manipur and Bihar. The second and third phase of elections in Bihar will be held on February 17 and 22, while Manipur will hold a second round on February 22. -Reuters