Voting resumes in crucial Indian state elections

Thousands of police were on alert across India’s most populated state today as millions voted in a second round of polling that has already seen gun battles between party supporters.

Voting in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s political heartland, includes seats in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s constituency and a number of lawless southeastern districts where voting fraud is rampant.

Polling is being held in three phases since there are 99 million voters in Uttar Pradesh, one of four key legislatures in India.

India is the world’s largest democracy with more than one billion people. Uttar Pradesh has produced eight of India’s 12 prime ministers since independence in 1947.

One person was killed and six wounded in pre-election violence in the eastern Azamgarh district yesterday, police said. Azamgarh is among those areas in the state where gun fights, often based on caste, are common.

Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the ruling federal coalition, controls a patchwork coalition in the 403 member Uttar Pradesh legislature.

The party’s main rival is the Socialist Party, headed by former Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, a lower caste Hindu who is one of the country’s most powerful leaders representing lower castes and Muslims.

In the industrial hub of Kanpur, where Hindus and Muslims have previously clashed, armed police were given orders to shoot at mobs trying to rig the polling. Authorities in some districts have barred groups of more than five people from assembling.

Vajpayee’s party has highlighted its fight against terror and has stoked fears of political instability in a bid to win votes.

But the opposition blames Vajpayee’s party for slack development in the state of 190 million, where an overwhelming number of India’s poor live.