Voting starts in Bihar

The orders were issued after unidentified gunmen shot dead a youth in Nawada district, 125km south of the state capital Patna, before voting started, police said.

"Cops have been ordered to shoot-at-sight the troublemakers who attempt to disturb peace," said state director general of police, A.R. Sinha.

Some 90,000 police, parami-litaries and other personnel were deployed to fight vote rigging and violence in the four-phase elections.

Maoist rebels, who stage regular bloody attacks on government officials, called a boycott and threatened to disrupt the polls in all 57 constituencies which voted Tuesday, but there were no further reports of violence by the close of polling.

As in the first election last February, the election has been staggered to try to keep law and order problems to a minimum in a state infamous for fraud and intimidation.

Policemen in riot gear stood guard as voters queued outside stations in the first phase.

Two senior figures in federal railways minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's regional Rashtriya Janata Dal party were detained for allegedly carrying arms and trying to damage electronic voting machines, police said.

And nine others were detained in the south-western district of Kaimur for trying to disrupt voting.

Problems were reported with electronic voting machines in four of the 12 districts polling Tuesday, election officials said, describing the turnout as "sluggish", which analysts attributed to the heavy security presence.

"At times, the armed forces instead of inculcating confidence among the people deter them from coming to the booths," said P.N. Singh, analyst with the Asian Development Research Institute, a Patna based think-tank.