Hundreds of Indians voted in the wild and remote northeast yesterday in the second phase of a mammoth national election expected to return to power a coalition led by Hindu nationalists.
Defying threats by tribal separatists to attack anyone voting, men and women lined up at polling booths across Tripura, the only state voting in this round and accounting for just two of parliament's 545 seats.
The election is staggered over five voting days from Tuesday to May 10 to allow security and polling teams to move around the country. India sealed its troublesome border with Bangladesh before the vote in Tripura.
A bomb planted by Muslim militants went off in the heart of Kashmir's main city of Srinagar yesterday, killing two people as the city geared for the third phase of voting on Monday.
Militants have called for a boycott of the parliamentary elections saying these were not a substitute for the 15-year conflict in Kashmir that has killed more than 40,000 people.
Most television exit polls from just over a quarter of parliament seats that took the vote on Tuesday suggested Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's broad alliance winning a thin majority, enough to rule but short of current strength.
But Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of the main opposition Congress, played down the surveys and said her party was optimistic after the first round of voting in an election involving 670 million people.
"We have been in touch with our workers, with our candidates in the states where we have had elections and from there I get a very, very positive feeling," Gandhi said in a rare interview on the campaign trail in her constituency of Rae Bareli in northern India.
Opinion polls have a mixed record in the world's biggest democracy and voting patterns differ wildly in constituencies.
"Spaghetti bowl predictions, pick the exit poll that suits you," the Times of India said referring to differing polls.
About three-quarters of the electorate has yet to vote, and just 2 million of the 670 million registered voters were eligible to cast their ballots in Tripura.
Electronic voting machines are being used nationwide for the first time and have been transported by helicopter, bullock-cart and elephant to remote polling booths.
Hours into the vote, Indian paramilitary guards exchanged fire with a group of tribal insurgents about 30km east of Tripura's capital but the men vanished into the forests, a police officer said.
Tribal militants have called for a boycott of the elections in communist-ruled Tripura, accusing the federal government of plundering the state's natural resources and flooding the area with outsiders.
"We really need peace in the state. We are voting for communists because they will be able to help in this," 70-year-old Pratibha Rani Pal said.
RSS