MODERATE VOTER TURNOUT
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Ballots in but bullets, blasts mark phase one polls
Published on Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 18:20, Updated on Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 18:49 in 
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New Delhi: Round one of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections ended on Thursday with millions queuing up in 17 states and union territories to vote in a new government amid Maoist violence that marred the democratic exercise in several places and left at least 17 dead.
The world's largest democratic exercise began early at 0700 hrs IST and ended at most places at 1700 hrs IST. A majority of the states reported moderate turnout despite the Maoist attacks on polling centres and security personnel.
People voted in 124 constituencies to pick a new 545-seat Lok Sabha in the first step of a four-phased exercise that is widely expected to throw up a split verdict. The Maoist violence affected a dozen constituencies.
About 143 million of India's 714 million voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the first of five rounds in 185,552 polling centres. A total of 1,715 candidates were in the fray, with over 300,000 electronic voting machines used.
Tens of thousands of election staff and security personnel kept vigil as people voted in all the constituencies of Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Island and Lakshwadeep. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa and Jharkhand saw partial voting.
But it was a bloody start to the ambitious exercise with Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Maharashtra seeing violence and intimidation as Maoist guerrillas tried to implement their election boycott through the barrel of the gun.
At least 17 people were killed as cadres of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist, which seeks to carry out an agrarian-based revolution, targeted polling officials and security personnel across the insurgency hit states.
Landmine blasts in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand saw 14 people getting killed. In Jharkhand's Latehar area, seven Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and two others heading to an election centre were killed when their bus was blown up.
In neighbouring Chhattisgarh, five polling officials died when Maoists detonated a landmine in Rajnandgaon district. A paramilitary trooper was shot dead in an exchange of bullets in the Maoist stronghold Dantewada.
In adjoining Bihar, a policeman and a Home Guard were killed when over a dozen Maoists opened fire at a polling station in Gaya district.
Reports of gun battles, booths being raided, voters being attacked and electronic voting machines being torched came in from several places in the affected states.
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The images of voters queuing up portrays the march towards creating a confident future. It's the hope that lingers in
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