April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428

KANPUR (India) April 7: Millions voted on Saturday in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh at the start of staggered polls, as the ruling Congress party suffered a crushing election defeat in New Delhi.

Forty-six per cent of 16 million voters cast their votes in 62 of the state's 403 assembly seats on the first leg of the marathon seven-phase election, officials said, seen as a dress rehearsal for national polls in 2009.

More than 50,000 paramilitary troops guarded poll stations in Uttar Pradesh, which also sends 80 MPs to the 543-seat national parliament, making it a bellwether state.

The vote came as India's ruling Congress party suffered a hefty defeat by opposition Hindu nationalists in bitterly contested elections for New Delhi's prestigious municipal council.

In the capital, the Hindu nationalists grabbed 164 of the municipal council's 272 seats, posting a daunting challenge to the Congress for polls next year to Delhi's state legislature.

The Congress, which has been in the political wilderness for 23 years in Uttar Pradesh, also did not fare well during Saturday's partial vote, according to some exit polls in the state which gave it fewer than the 15 seats it holds currently.

Voters chose from parties headed by colourful characters -- including a former wrestler and a woman from India's untouchable classes -- both with corruption allegations hanging over their heads.

Accused murderers and bandits were also among the candidates in the state of 170 million people.

A third of the candidates for the two top local parties face criminal charges, the Association for Democratic Reforms election watchdog says.

“It's not an easy job to conduct elections in a state where criminals and mafia lords also vie for political power,” election chief Bishnoi said.

“There was no violence reported from anywhere in the 62 constituencies,” Chief Electoral Officer A. K Bishnoi said in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow.

The peaceful polling was in sharp contrast to the first day of voting during the 2002 state polls when the region reported 39 clashes including fierce gunbattles between rivals.

Travel to districts that were voting had been curtailed from late Friday and shops were closed on Saturday in Kanpur, a former mill town of 2.7 million people, and other centres.

Thousands of women in Muslim veils or clad in saris Hindu women wear were seen heading to vote on foot at poll sites near their homes, emerging with red ink marks on their index fingers to prevent people from voting more than once.

Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has appealed to voters to keep him in power after his chief rival, Mayawati Kumari, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party, swore to prosecute him on corruption charges if she was elected.

“Do you want me to go to jail or do you want me to work?” asked Yadav, a former wrestler whose ruling Samajwadi Party is backed by his own Yadav caste and Muslims, at a rally Monday.

“Vote me into power. Otherwise I will go to jail.” Mayawati, a feisty schoolteacher-turned politician, who soared to power with the support of Dalits, as the so-called untouchables caste, is also being probed for corruption.

Arms sales have been halted until votes are counted on May 11 but an increasing number of people have come to seek guns for self-protection, said Afzal Alam, owner of one of the many gun shop in the state.

Yadav's opponents accuse the current government of being lax on crime.

The Congress, which has a majority in the Delhi state assembly, suffered unexpected defeats in elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand states earlier this year.-AFP