Violence plagued elections in India's insurgency-hit state of Assam today as voting began under tight security there and in four other regions of the world's most populous democracy.
State assembly elections - widely seen as a test of Italian-born Ms Sonia Gandhi's ability to revive the fortunes of her opposition Congress party - were taking place in Assam, three other states and one federally administered territory.
Six election officials were kidnapped in Assam by separatist militants on their way to a polling station and a guerrilla was shot dead in an encounter with security forces.
But voting got off to a brisk and peaceful start elsewhere, including in West Bengal, where police braced for clashes between supporters of the communist government and its challengers.
"We are confident of a peaceful poll. We have done all that is humanly possible to ensure it," chief election commissioner Mr M.S. Gill said.
"We have sent maximum security forces to the states, especially West Bengal and Kerala. We have done our best. India is a big country with pockets of social tension and violence."
Analysts see the legislative assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and the federally administered territory of Pondicherry as a test of Ms Gandhi's ability to woo voters back to her troubled party.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is a marginal player in the polling and he has rejected suggestions the votes will be a referendum on his coalition government which was destabilised in March by an arms bribery scandal.