Indian Paramilitary soldiers stand guard at a polling booth, ahead of the second phase of India’s general elections, in Allahabad, India, Wednesday, April 22, 2009. India's national elections, which began April 16, will take place over five phases until May 13. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
PATNA, India – Suspected communist rebels used a homemade bomb to attack a jeep carrying election officials, injuring two people, as voting began Thursday in the second round of India’s monthlong national elections, officials said.
Government forces were on high alert as thousands of people crowded polling stations early in the day to avoid blazing summertime temperatures touching 111 degrees Fahrenheit (44 Celsius) in parts of the eastern states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar.
Reflecting the myriad differences of India’s electorate, few expected a clear winner after a lackluster campaign that has been devoid of resonant, central issues.
On Wednesday, communist rebels briefly hijacked a train carrying 300 passengers, later releasing them unharmed, and carried out other attacks aimed at disrupting the polls. A truck driver was killed by suspected rebels on a highway in Bihar, considered one of the most lawless states, said Neelmani, a local police official who uses only one name.
Much of the violence was focused in eastern and central India where communist guerrillas have fought for decades for the rights of the poor, but tensions remained high in other regions as the elections exposed ethnic, religious and caste divides in the nation of some 1.2 billion people.
Thursday’s attack on poll officials in Jharkhand state injured a magistrate and a police officer, state spokesman S.P. Pradhan said. The attackers then fled.
Also in Jharkhand, security forces fired from a helicopter on a suspected rebel hide-out in a remote forest area to prevent the guerrillas from disrupting the polls, said Navin Kumar Singh, a superintendent of police. Other details were not immediately available.
During the first phase of voting last Thursday, more than three dozen attacks by Maoist fighters killed at least 17 people — including police, soldiers, election officials and civilians — in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh states. Three election officials were kidnapped.
The rebels, called Naxalites, have called for a boycott of the elections, and a pamphlet left at one attacked government office described the vote as “a fake exercise.”
“You will pay with your lives if you participate in these elections,” it read.
The voting is being conducted in five phases and is to be completed on May 13. The results are expected on May 16. With more than 700 million voters, India normally holds staggered elections for logistic and security reasons.
Tensions were also high in other parts of the country. In the northeastern state of Assam, tribal militants ambushed a convoy of trucks on Monday, killing five police escorts and a civilian driver.
Polls indicate neither the Congress party, which leads the governing coalition, nor the main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, will win enough seats in the 543-seat lower house of Parliament to rule on their own.
Instead, many of the seats are expected to go to a range of regional and caste-based parties that tend to focus on local issues and local promises, from cheaper electricity for farmers to free color TVs.
That means the elections will likely leave India with a shaky coalition government cobbled together from across the political spectrum — a situation that could leave the next prime minister little time to deal with India’s many troubles.