India's left bastion votes amid heavy security

NEW DELHI - Tens of thousands of people braved light rain to cast their votes yesterday in India's West Bengal state where the world's longest-ruling elected communist government is seeking another term in office.

Dressed in colourful ethnic clothes, they stood in long queues outside voting booths in three districts dominated by the Maoist rebels in the first of the five-phase election process.

The rebels have called for a boycott of polls and authorities deploy tens of thousands of troops to guard polling centres.

"More than 50 per cent votes had been cast till 1.30pm and we are expecting a bigger turnout," Raj Kanojia, a top police officer, told Reuters by telephone.

Indian Maoists, who control vast swathes of rural India along its eastern flank, denounce elections and claim to fight for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers.

Past elections in the eastern state, which shares a long border with Bangladesh, have been plagued by Maoist violence as well as frequent clashes between rival political groups.

But no violence was reported on Monday, police said.

The state's ruling leftists are fighting the main opposition Congress party, which heads the federal government.

The left parties support the Congress coalition in New Delhi but are pitted against it in the state polls where the communists are aiming to win power for the seventh straight term since 1977.

Ignoring the Maoist boycott call, voters, including many women, trickled into booths from early in the day, as security forces with automatic weapons, watched over them.

The Maoist threat meant helicopters had to be used to fly polling personnel and voting machines to several sensitive areas, police said.

- REUTERS