(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 27 - A person was killed and a bomb was thrown at a polling station in the Indian state of West Bengal, where the polls for the renewal of the legislative assembly were opened this morning and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to unseat one of his most staunch opponents.
Victory in the eastern region of 90 million would be a major achievement for Modi's Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata, which seeks to further expand its power base beyond its traditional Hindi-speaking constituency.
The election campaign saw huge demonstrations despite a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in India in recent weeks, including a pro Modi event in Calcutta attended by around 800,000 people.
For anti-Covid security reasons, the elections take place in eight phases that will end on April 29.
Today, in the first of three rounds, the northeastern state of Assam also went to the polls, while Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will vote on 6 April.
The results, for everyone, will be released on May 2nd.
This morning - the police reported - a group of people threw bombs at a polling station, severely injuring an official.
The president of the BJP in the state, Dilip Ghosh, later reported that one of their supporters was killed by members of the Trinamool Congress, the region's government party, in the early hours of dawn.
"His body was found in the enclosure of his mud hut," he said.
The attackers also attacked the vehicles of at least two election candidates, police said.
(HANDLE).
