A candidate for India's parliament and four of his supporters were gunned down Tuesday in a state notorious for its lawlessness, raising India's election-related death toll to more than 60.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after midnight on Devendranath Dubey, a candidate of the socialist Samajwadi Party.All five victims were found dead in a jeep at Sangrampur village, 115 miles north of Bihar's capital Patna, said police officer T.P. Sinha.
The nationwide parliamentary election has focused attention on the pressures on India's democracy, and violence has been fiercest in northern Bihar state. Dubey himself was being investigated for murder.
The vote was called three years ahead of schedule after no party won a majority in the last balloting in 1996, and the rivalries that kept politicians from forming a stable government over the past two years are echoed in the current unrest.
In three days of balloting, voting has been completed for three-fourths of the 543 districts at stake. Voting was staggered over six days to allow security forces time to move to different trouble spots. A fourth round will be held Saturday and vote counting will begin Monday, with only a few seats being contested on the last voting days March 7 and June 21.
A government is expected to be in power mid-March, in time to present a budget for the new financial year that begins April 1.