NEW DELHI, February 16: Bihar showed the way in election violence once again. At least 17 people were killed at the end of the first phase of general elections with several reports of electoral malpractices coming from across the 34 constituencies which went to the polls today.Extremist violence killed six, including four policemen, in landmine blasts. State Chief Secretary B P Verma said that two Border Security Force men were killed in Chatra, one homeguard and one chowkidar in Bokaro and two persons were killed in Palamau.Two CPI workers, Ram Nandan Singh and Bidashi Majhi, were killed while they were trying to stop RJD activists from ransacking a polling booth in Jehanabad. Another CPI worker, Arvind Yadav, is in a critical condition with bullet injuries. In Ara, CPI(M-L) worker Pawan Ram was killed inside a polling booth in Sandesh allegedly by Samata Party supporters.Samata Party secretary P.K. Sinha, however, claimed that three of his supporters were killed in Monghyr. In the Khagaria LokSabha constituency, at least four persons were killed in the clash between two ganglords Tulsi Singh and Kailu Yadav over booth-capturing.Chief Electoral Officer A K Basu said that he had ordered the arrest of RJD legislator Yadvendra who was earlier in the day detained for trying to ``capture'' booths.The worst-affected constituency was Patna, where from 10 a m, groups of goons - of all political parties - were seen intimidating voters. Incidentally, most booths in Patna did not have police escort and were left to the care of patrolling police parties. Basu admitted: ``Patna has registered the highest number of incidents of booth-capturing. Around 500 to 600 booths out of 1,800 have been reported to be either disturbed or looted.There's definitely a problem in the Patna constituency.''ASSAM: 48 booths reported snatching of ballot boxes and papers; ULFA threat, rain contributed to lowest turnout in Jorhat (12.5%) and Assamese-speaking areas; turnout high in Bengali-speaking Barak Valley, Silchar(72.5%).
