India votes in world's largest election

Indians voted in their tens of millions yesterday as the world's largest democracy kicked off month-long, five-stage elections, with little hope of a clear winner emerging at the end of it all.

From the southern tropical state of Kerala to the Himalayan foothills of Kashmir in the north, they cast their ballots at the start of a process so complex and spread out that six million civil and security personnel are needed to keep it on track.

Neither the ruling Congress party nor its main rival, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is expected to win outright when voting wraps up on May 13, setting the stage for some old-fashioned political horse-trading to build a coalition that can govern India's one billion people.

The election comes at a pivotal time for India and its 714 million electorate, with a once red-hot economy feeling the strain of the global downturn and relations with neighbouring Pakistan at a new low since the deadly Mumbai attacks in November.

Domestic security concerns were highlighted soon after polling opened when Maoist rebels launched attacks in several eastern states, killing at least 19 people, including 10 paramilitary troopers and five election workers.

The Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and landless farmers, have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the biggest overall threat to India's stability.

Elsewhere, patient voters formed long and often colourful queues to use the electronic voting machines and have their fingers stained with indelible ink to prevent any fraud.

"As citizens of this country we want basic facilities for development like electricity, water, jobs for our young," said Chotte Lal Singh Patel, 60, a village elder from the outskirts of the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

Such grassroots issues are behind the rise of regional and local groupings who have succeeded in splintering national support for the established parties by catering to small constituencies.

Many voters are also expected to make their choices along purely religious and caste lines, making the final result almost impossible to predict.

In the inevitable rush to cobble together a post-poll coalition, both national parties will be looking to the tactical skills of their veteran leaders: Manmohan Singh, 76, for the Congress and the BJP's L.K. Advani, 81.

Around 143 million people - more than the population of Russia - were eligible to vote in yesterday's first phase. Election officials estimated the turnout at 60 per cent.

"Our kids are so desperate for food," said Ruksana Begun, as she cast her ballot in Varanasi, with only her eyes visible from under an all-enveloping black burka.

"Everything is expensive and the people here are very distressed by the prices," she said.

After five successive years of near-double-digit growth which lent the country the international clout it has long sought, the economy has been badly hit by the global downturn.

India's fiscal deficit for the last financial year was six per cent of GDP - more than double the target - and 11 per cent if the deficits of regional state governments are included.

And there are major security concerns over growing regional instability, particularly arch-rival Pakistan where the growing influence of the Taliban has been watched from New Delhi with increasing alarm.