NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- A wave of violence erupted in Indian parliamentary elections Saturday, killing 44 people as guerrillas blew up a police patrol and election boycotters clashed with security forces.
After the third round of balloting in the five-phase election, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's coalition firmed his lead over the leading opposition party, Sonia Gandhi's Congress, and was poised to return to power with a parliamentary majority, an exit poll on state-run television showed.But the balloting was accompanied by violence, mainly by armed leftist guerillas using the high-security event to continue their class war against the wealthy they see represented in the government.
Of the 44 who died Saturday, 34 were policemen, soldiers, election workers and two magistrates. They were killed when at least eight land mines exploded under vehicles carrying them to work at polling stations in northeast Bihar, India's poorest and most lawless province, according to the state's home commissioner, U.N. Panjiar.
"We got over an anxious day," Manohar Singh Gill, India's Chief Election Commissioner, said after polls closed at 5 p.m. "We are into the harder part of the election."
The elections were more publicized this year than ever, with billboards and television advertisements urging citizens to vote.
Nearly 93 million voters were eligible, and turnout was a high 53 percent, the independent election commission said.
The exit poll telecast on the state-run Doordarshan television said Vajpayee's 22-party coalition would win 191 of the 344 seats where voting has been held so far. Mrs. Gandhi's Congress party would win 126 of those seats, according to the three-phase poll based on interviews with 22,000 voters.
Of the 76 seats representing the regions where Saturday's voting was held, Vajpayee and his allies would win 46 seats and the Congress party 21, the poll showed.
On a campaign swing through eastern Orissa state, Vajpayee lashed out at the state's Congress-led government for failing to curb attacks by Hindu fundamentalists on Christians and Muslims.
"The state government has miserably failed to nab the culprits," Vajpayee said, rejecting Congress's charges that the national leadership had fueled sectarianism.
A commission appointed by the national government censured the state for failing to protect minorities, and cleared Vajpayee's party of alleged links to certain Orissa killings. But Christian groups and the state said the report is biased.
Chaos and violence continued Saturday at election sites. Police in Bihar were given orders to shoot on sight to prevent guerrillas from terrorizing voters, seizing ballot boxes or stuffing them.
"But we weren't prepared for anything like this," Panjiar said.
Voter turnout was 57.5 percent in Bihar, and 61 percent in Andhra Pradesh, where a land mine killed a party worker and injured three others, United News of India news agency said.
Fifty leaders of the leftist All Hurriyat Party Conference, which had called for the boycott, were being held in custody.
Fifty-one percent of the voters cast ballots in northern Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous heartland state. Both Vajpayee and Mrs. Gandhi are seeking parliament seats in Uttar Pradesh, though their constituencies vote on Oct. 3, the last polling day.
Elections were called after Vajpayee lost a confidence motion by one vote in April, and no other party was able to form a government. Ballot counting starts Oct. 6, and a new government should be seated mid-October.
In Kashmir, polling stations, roads and shops were deserted as separatists boycotted the vote across the northern border region, which has been disputed for 52 years between India and Pakistan.
But the election commission reported a 27 percent turnout for Baramulla, the only constituency in Kashmir to vote Saturday. Balloting in a second district was canceled after the assassination of a candidate last week.
Police and other sources said troops opened fire on people who refused to come out from their homes to vote in Baramulla. Three residents were killed and four were injured, they said.
The state government, which has banned anti-election rallies, was accused in the earlier voting phases of using security forces to force a higher turnout.