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26 killed in polling; 55% turnout for 222 seats

Crude bombs were hurled and landmines blasted. Rival groups and extremists exchanged fire as 26 people were killed in the first phase of polling on Monday. Twentythree of those victims died in one state alone, Bihar. Two deaths were reported from Andhra Pradesh and one from Assam.

Most of the 23 people perished in landmine blasts by Marxist-Leninist extremists in Bihar. Five policemen died in four different incidents as they were returning with ballot boxes after the polling in Gaya, Giridih, Kodarma and Palamau.

A Bihar military police jawan and a driver were injured when they were fired upon by militants while returning with ballot boxes in Kodarma. The police retaliated killing three militants.

While two policemen were killed in a landmine blast at Mathgada under the Mohanpur police limits, two others were crushed to death as their truck overturned following a landmine explosion in Gaya and Chathra constituencies respectively. The second incident occurred at Bhalwa village where the officer in-charge of the Barachetta police station along with others was patrolling on the Grand Trunk Road, the police said.

In Bokaro district under the Giridih constituency, a head constable of the Border Security Force was killed and three others were injured in yet another landmine blast near the Konar dam site on Jhumra hill in the evening.

Another mine blast was reported under the Chainpur police limits of the Naxalite-dominated Palamu constituency; the number of casualties is not yet known, sources said.

About three landmine blasts were reported in Naxalite-infested areas killing four policemen.

Most of the Opposition parties blamed the state administration for largescale booth capturing and rigging and urged the chief election commissioner to order a repoll in most of the booths amid tight security cover.

An estimated 55 to 60 per cent of 250 million voters cast their ballots in elections to the 12th Lok Sabha and the assemblies of Meghalaya and Tripura.

While Tripura recorded the highest turnout of 85 per cent among the states, Lakshadweep's turnout of 90 per cent was the highest in the country. Today's polling involved 20 states and Union territories.

According to preliminary reports received in New Delhi, less than 50 per cent polling was registered in Arunachal Pradesh (40%), Assam (42%), and Manipur, Jammu, Sikkim, Delhi and Tamil Nadu (45% each).

High turnouts of 60 per cent and above were reported from Meghalaya (70%), Andhra Pradesh (63%), Punjab (65%), Haryana (60%), and Dadra Nagar and Haveli (72%).

Bihar, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Uttar Pradesh registered 55 per cent voting, while Karnataka had a 58 per cent turnout and Rajasthan 50 per cent.

In New Delhi, President K R Narayanan and his wife Usha broke from tradition and cast their ballots in a polling booth inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex. Narayanan thus becomes the first President in Indian history to vote in an election. Previous Presidents had refrained from casting their ballot.

Violence broke out in many parts of the country where elections were being held. Crude bombs were hurled, clashes broke out, and ballot boxes were snatched as the violence, that has already cast its shadow on the North-East and Tamil Nadu, disrupted the poll process in many parts of the country.

Dr Gill, however, termed the polling as being "by and large" peaceful. He expressed satisfaction at the first phase of the election. He was particularly pleased that in spite of all the apprehensions the five North-East states were virtually tension-free.

The CEC said a decision about repolling in some hundred constituencies in Bihar would be taken soon. He said the Union home ministry and the Election Commission had taken special measures to ensure free and fair polling.

In Bihar, defying shoot-at-sight orders, rival party workers exploded bombs and clashed with one another. Four people were killed when supporters of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal exchanged fire with Janata Dal workers in Khagaria.

Two Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed and two were seriously injured when miscreants detonated countrymade bombs at Mahatjaneshwar village in Bokaro district.

A Border Security Force jawan and a village chowkidar were killed when a landmine planted by outlawed extremist outfits exploded at Diddah village in Hazaribagh. The vehicle in which the two men were patrolling was blown to pieces, police said.

Two more people were killed in Naxalite-affected areas, one in Makdhoompur village in hypersensitive Jehanabad, and the other in Munger. The deaths occurred due to clashes between rival parties.

Large-scale rigging and booth capturing were reported from different places even though the police and five companies of the elite Rapid Action Force, besides huge contingents of central and state forces, were deployed in the sensitive and hypersensitive areas.

Ballot papers were reportedly snatched in the hypersensitive areas of Kakei, Kurtha and Makdhoompur in Jehanabad. Polling has been postponed to February 18 after ballot boxes were forcibly taken away in two booths in Giridih.

In Patna, some miscreants opened fire in the air at some polling stations near the the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, resulting in suspension of polling in two booths.

In Kankarbagh, some miscreants entered three booths in a girls high school and tore the ballot papers before fleeing. Polling was suspended subsequently, the police said.

A report from Munger said polling was suspended with some miscreants snatching away ballot papers from four booths.

In Assam, one Bodo militant was shot dead by police at Kolia Moila in Bongaigaon while extremists burnt bridges and fired in the air to scare away voters in lower Assam.

Suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants spirited away poll material from seven polling stations in the Guwahati and Nalbari districts, resulting in suspension of polling. Officials said fresh polling will be held later.

ULFA had given a call to boycott the election in the state. In the run-up to the election, the secessionist outfit had killed a Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist-Liberation) candidate. It also shot and injured Asom Gana Parishad activists besides grievously injuring the municipality administration minister of Assam.

According to official reports, Bodo militants opened fire at a refugee camp of Kolia Moila in Bongaigaon where a polling station was located. A CRPF guard posted there returned the fire, killing one militant on the spot.

The militants also burnt a bridge at Amrugi in Kokrajhar and scared away voters at Rupsi by firing in the air.

Incidents of snatching of ballot papers and other poll material were reported from at least eight polling stations across the state, but no casualties were reported.

Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his wife Jayashree Goswamy Mahanta, the AGP candidate in the Nagaon constituency, were the first to cast their votes in Nagaon. Brisk polling was reported in the Barak valley.

In Guwahati, almost all the shops and business establishments remained closed and vehicles stayed off the road.

In Andhra Pradesh, one person was stabbed to death and scores were injured as group clashes occurred throughout the state. Polling was suspended at several places in coastal and Rayalaseema regions of the state.

A Congress polling agent, Ramakrishna Reddy, was stabbed to death by a Telugu Desam Party activist at Udayagiri in Nellore district, which forms part of the Ongole constituency. He succumbed to injuries on the way to the hospital.

In retaliation, Congress workers allegedly set fire to the house of TDP activist Subba Reddy.

Three Congress activists were injured when the gunman of the agent of the TDP candidate opened fire at Kodumuru in the Kurnool constituency.

The police opened fire at Ponnur, Nidubrolu, Dondapadu and in Guntur town in Guntur district to to disperse clashing TDP and Congress activists who hurled bombs at each other. Three people were injured in the bomb attack at Dondapadu.

Four Congress activists and three TDP workers were injured in group clashes near a polling booth in Vijayawada. At Mittagudem in Machilipatnam, four Communist Party of India workers were injured in a clash with Congress activists.

Polling was suspended in five booths -- two in Narasaraopet and three in Ongole constituencies, after ballot papers were disfigured. Similar incidents were also reported from Cuddapah district.

At a village near Mydukur in Cuddapah, bombs were hurled allegedly by Congress activists at their rivals. However, no one was injured.

Villagers of Muddireddipalli in Cuddapah boycotted the poll, protesting against lack of electricity.

In Tamil Nadu, after Saturday's serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore city which claimed 49 lives (police sources in Madras have put the toll at 81) and injured more than 200, polling in the state was by and large peaceful. Coimbatore District Collector G Santhanam and city Police Commissioner Nanjil Kumaran said no untoward incident was report from any part of the city since last night.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, after casting his vote at the Gopalapuram polling booth in Madras, stated that the incidents at Coimbatore were the result of mixing religion with politics. ''It was a sequel to the demolition of the Babri Masjid,'' he added.

In Uttar Pradesh, two Samajwadi Party workers were injured when Bharatiya Janata Party activists reportedly opened fire at Nagthari village in the Mainpuri constituency, classified by the Election Commission as one of the seven 'super sensitive' constituencies in the state.

Polling in Uttar Pradesh remained largely peaceful, according to state Chief Secretary R S Mathur in Lucknow. Most of the 52 constituencies going to the polls reported little violence.

However, UP Chief Electoral Officer Noor Mohammad said he had received dozens of complaints relating to minor disturbances. The turnout of around 55 per cent is higher than 1996 which was 46 per cent.

The constituency which saw the highest turnout (60%) was Mirzapur, where Phoolan Devi is seeking re-election as a Samajwadi Party candidate. Ghosi, where former Union minister Kalpnath Rai is in the fray, also saw a turnout of 60 per cent.

The police said the incident in the Mainpuri constituency had not affected polling in this area which falls in the Bhagan assembly segment. Former union minister Balram Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party is pitted against Dr Ashok Yadav, a minister in the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.

A repoll has been ordered in 15 booths so far. Mathur described Monday as one of the most peaceful elections in the state of all times.

A youth was injured in Varanasi as workers of two political parties clashed in the Tulsipur area. The incident occurred near a polling station, but it did not affect the polling.

Two rival groups engaged in stone pelting in Seergovardhan village falling in Varanasi. Some miscreants also fired a few shots in the air there, causing terror for some time.

The police arrested at least six people from Pisanhara polling station falling under the Chandauli constituency when they were trying to cast dummy votes.

Barring these incidents and a few other stray incidents of altercation, polling was by and large peaceful in Varanasi and Chandauli parliamentary constituencies.

In Tripura, two people sustained injuries in group skirmishes following which police opened fire at Kalikapur while militants hoisted black flags in support of their call for a boycott. During the campaigning period, 34 people had been killed due to violence caused by underground militants.

In today's polling, a large number of party workers were arrested for possessing revolvers and weapons, and for throwing bombs on voters.

Manipur recorded one of its lowest turnout as the Nagas boycotted the polls in the two Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. There was a very poor turnout of voters at almost all the polling stations in the five hill districts of Manipur.

No Naga voter turned out in the Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel, and the Tamenglong districts. However, Kuki voters turned out to cast their votes.

It is the first time that the state has recorded such a poor turnout.

In Meghalaya, four persons were killed and many injured when a minitruck carrying supporters of an independent candidate in Dalu constituency in the West Garo Hill district fell into the Bakla river near Barengapara.

Supporters of two Independent candidates also clashed in the Ampathi constituency and sustained minor injuries.

In Karnataka, the authorities clamped prohibitory orders at Pandavapura in Mandya after BJP and Janata Dal workers clashed in front of a polling booth.

UNI

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