RAJNANDGAON: Indians cast ballots on Thursday on the biggest day of voting in the country’s weekslong general election, streaming into polling stations even in areas where leftist rebels threatened violence over the plight of India’s marginalised and poor. Nationwide voting began on April 7 and runs through May 12, with results for the 543-seat lower house of Parliament to be announced four days later.

Among the 13 key states voting on Thursday was Chhattisgarh, now the centre of a four-decade Maoist insurgency that has affected more than a dozen of India’s 28 states.

With roadside bombings, jungle ambushes and hit-and-run raids, the rebels aim for nothing short of sparking a full-blown peasant revolt as they accuse the government and corporations of plundering resources and stomping on the rights of the poor. But authorities say that, amid the bloodshed, there are signs that the rebels have waning support — including lines of voters shuffling into polling booths in rebel strongholds.

“I want a good life for my baby, security and peace”, said Neha Ransure, a 25-year-old woman who was voting in the Chhattisgarh town of Rajnandgaon.

“The rebels are bad. They kill our soldiers. I don’t go outside of town. It is too dangerous.” Rebels always threaten to disrupt Indian elections, and this year is no different.

While Rajnandgaon was peaceful on Thursday, rebels set off a bomb near a group of polling officials and security forces in the neighbouring district of Kanker, police said. No one was hurt.

Another blast injured three paramilitary soldiers and a driver in the state of Jharkhand, where they also blew up railway lines.On Saturday, two rebel bomb attacks killed 14 — five paramilitary soldiers, two bus drivers, two civilians and five teachers who were working as election officials.

The insurgents apologised for the civilian deaths and reiterated a promise, often broken, to target only politicians and uniformed law enforcement officers.

More than 4,800 people, including about 2,850 civilians, have been killed nationwide since 2008 in what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called India’s biggest internal security threat.—AP