"I came to vote because I wanted to recognize the good work done by the government," said Mohanlal Pashan, 70, a retired state employee in Bangalore, India's information technology hub. "For me, the most important issue is economic progress."
The massive election will be staggered in five phases over three weeks ending May 10 to accommodate the country's 660 million voters, with counting to begin three days later. Voter turnout yesterday was 50 percent to 55 percent, according to the Election Commission.
About 400,000 police and troops were deployed to protect candidates, voters and poll workers, and air force helicopters patrolled some of the more threatened districts.
Opinion polls have predicted Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance would return to power, but his party was not expected to win an outright majority and could even lose a few seats.
The opposition Congress party, which headed India for nearly four straight decades under the leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, faces an uphill battle. Congress claims India's rural poor have been left behind by the government's push for economic growth.
Islamic militants opposed to India's control over portions of Kashmir were blamed for fatally shooting a paramilitary soldier guarding a polling station and a separate bomb attack in the region that wounded six civilians, including two poll workers.
The militants say the elections legitimize what they see as India's occupation of the Himalayan region, and they have threatened attacks on anyone participating in the polls.
A car filled with Indian journalists and human rights activists on their way to monitor polling stations exploded when it ran over a land mine in Kashmir. The driver and a human rights activist -- Asiya Geelani of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons -- were killed and four others were wounded.
