One killed, bombs thrown as restive Indian state votes

KOLKATA: One person was killed and bombs were thrown at a polling station Saturday as India´s hotbed of political violence West Bengal held elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to unseat one of his fiercest opponents.

Victory in the eastern region of 90 million would be a major achievement for Modi´s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as it looks to expand further its power base beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands.

In a state where thousands have died since the 1960s, fresh incidents of violence were reported Saturday with police saying a mob threw bombs at one polling station, seriously injuring an officer.

The president of the BJP in the state, Dilip Ghosh, said one of their supporters was killed by members of the region´s ruling Trinamool Congress party in the early hours. “His body was found in the compound of his mud hut,” he said. Assailants also attacked the vehicles of at least two election candidates, police said.

Bank employee Bablu Das, 32, said voting was taking place in his district in the west of the state “in an atmosphere of violence” and that many people were too scared to vote. Because of extra security the election is being held over eight phases concluding on April 29.

The campaign has seen huge rallies despite a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in India in recent weeks, including around 800,000 people attending one Modi event in Kolkata. The north-eastern state of Assam also went to the polls on Saturday in the first of three phases, while Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry vote on April 6. Results from all are due on May 2.

West Bengal is the most important with the BJP pushing hard to win power in the largely Bengali-speaking region for the first time.

But the party faces a tough opponent in incumbent chief minister Mamata Banerjee, 66, a firebrand nicknamed “Didi” (“Big Sister”), and her Trinamool Congress party.

Activists from both parties have been shot or hacked to death, their bodies sometimes hung from trees. Crude bombs, available on the black market for as little as a Rs100, have been used to kill, maim or intimidate voters.