Shootouts, ballot rigging and voter intimidation were widespread during the first day of polling to elect a new government for the world's most populous democracy, campaigners and newspapers reported Thursday.
At least 40 people were killed Wednesday on the first day of voting in parliamentary elections that end Sunday.Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party and the National Front coalition of opposition parties accused each other of instigating the violence.
One of Gandhi's close advisers condemned the violence and submitted her resignation.
Pupul Jayakar, Gandhi's adviser on culture, said the fighting during the voting had caused her deep concern. "I see violence everywhere," she said. "An individual has to take a stand.
"But that is not connected to my resignation. I have been planning to resign for some months and it seemed appropriate to do so on the day the nation goes to the polls," said Jayakar, who was a friend of Gandhi's mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Gandhi, who succeeded his mother after her 1984 assassination, is facing the most cohesive election challenge ever mounted by the opposition parties, who seldom manage to overcome their squabbles to present a united front against the Congress Party.
But this year five parties melded themselves into the National Front to oppose Gandhi. In the face of rare opposition unity, the Congress Party is in serious electoral trouble, opinion polls say.
The first election results are expected Sunday night.
On Wednesday, 15 of the country's 25 states and five of its 7 federally ruled territories voted. Other regions vote Friday and Sunday. At stake are 524 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, or House of the People, Parliament's policymaking lower house. Several contests were postponed because of incomplete voter rolls and candidates' deaths.
At least three independent candidates were among the 84 people killed in campaign violence since the elections were announced Oct. 17. Most of the other victims were party workers, election officials and voters.
Several shootouts between supporters of the Congress Party and the opposition were reported in Amethi, the remote rural constituency in Uttar Pradesh state where Gandhi is seeking re-election.
One of the victims was Sanjay Singh, a local opposition leader, who was shot and wounded. There were conflicting reports about the seriousness of the injury.
Sanjay Singh underwent surgery in Lucknow, where his aide Satyajit Singh said two bullets were removed from his thigh. Satyajit did not say how Sanjay was wounded.
The Indian Express said he was shot in the stomach by a Congress Party activist. United News of India news agency said his condition was causing his doctors concern.
Singh, whose wife is a niece of National Front leader Vishwanath Pratap Singh, was in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Lucknow, the state capital.
"Never has such a disgraceful and criminal incident occurred in a constituency from which the prime minister of India has been contesting," Indian Express said in an editorial. "But then, never has the country had a prime minister like this one."