Voting in West Bengal amid tight security

Indian women voters have their identity cards inspected by an election official as they stand in a queue outside a polling booth at Chotojibanpur, some 240kms south-west of Kolkata yesterday. Voting in state assembly polls has opened under tight security in India's Marxist bastion of West Bengal, where leftist parties are expected to win big and gain strength on the national scene. PHOTO: AFP

Officials said people turned up in colourful traditional clothes and waited in long queues under a scorching sun, with temperatures up to 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit).

"(By) late afternoon, voter turnout was more than 47 percent," said the state's chief election official Debashish Sen.

Around 3.2 million people were eligible to vote in Monday's first stage of the five-phase vote, under which 45 constituencies were being contested at 7,700 polling stations in three districts.

Another four rounds of voting are due on April 22, April 27, May 3 and May 8 for a total of 294 state assembly seats. The results are due on May 11.

Officials said thousands of policemen, backed by helicopters, patrolled three western districts of the populous state where balloting was being held amid a poll boycott by Maoist rebels who control swathes of rural areas.

"All possible steps have been taken to thwart the Maoist threats," said West Bengal police inspector general Raj Konojia.

"Over 60,000 policemen have been deployed and two helicopters are on aerial patrol," Kanojia said, adding police had been asked to shoot troublemakers.

Witnesses said police in riot gear stood guard outside polling booths while helicopters flew over thick forests where Maoist rebels are believed to have camps.

A pre-poll survey predicted that communists, also known as the Left Front, would win more than 233 seats. The communists are crucial outside allies of the Congress-led federal government but staunch critics of its economic and foreign policies.

"The Left Front appears set to win the seventh consecutive assembly election and add to the size of its majority," said a survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, a research group based in New Delhi.

A win for the Left Front would allow them to wield more influence on national economic and foreign policies, said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.

But "a defeat for the party in West Bengal could strain ties between the Left and the Congress as the communists will blame the erosion of their support base on the unpopular policies followed by the federal government," he said.

The communists have been opposing the opening up of the retail sector, privatisation of airports and a landmark nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington.