[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 3:45 AM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Communists to gain in India Reuters (additional material from BBC). 10 May 2001. Good News for Communists in Indian State Elections. CALCUTTA, India The communists of India's West Bengal looked set to cling to power Thursday after elections in five states that were marred by flashes of violence. Despite high security, 10 people were killed and dozens were injured, mostly in the insurgency-plagued state of Assam and in West Bengal where rivalry between supporters of the leftists and their challengers is intense. An exit poll carried out by Development and Research Services (DRS) projected a narrow victory for the left, which has established a grip on virtually every area of administration and business in the eastern state over 24 years of rule. However, the official results of the state assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the federal protectorate of Pondicherry will not be known until Sunday. Analysts see the polls as a test of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi's ability to woo voters back to her opposition Congress party, whose fortunes have flagged since it was ousted in the general elections of 1996. Although the DRS exit poll suggested that Congress may be on the losing side in West Bengal, where it had joined hands with the Trinamool Congress party of rabble-rousing communist baiter Mamata Banerjee, there was good news for Gandhi elsewhere. ARRESTING GANDHI'S ELECTORAL MELTDOWN ZEE Television, which broadcast the results of the exit poll, said a front led by Congress was set to trounce the ruling Left Democratic Front in the southern state of Kerala. The poll showed Congress smashing the ruling party in the tea-growing northeastern state of Assam, but falling just a few assembly seats short of the majority required to rule. And in Tamil Nadu to the south, an alliance led by the controversial former film star Jayaram Jayayalitha which includes Congress was seen winning enough seats to unseat its arch-rival, Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party was a marginal player in the polls. He has rejected suggestions that they were a referendum on his coalition government, which was knocked sideways in March by an arms bribery scandal. But the good showing for Congress could arrest what one newspaper dubbed the "electoral meltdown" of Gandhi's party and spur her to take a more combative approach with the government. Tens of thousands of police and paramilitaries, backed by the army, stood on alert for the polls, for which the turnout among more than 134 million voters averaged 65 percent. Police said four people died in West Bengal when rival political groups clashed, among them a man who jumped into a lake after being chased by riot police. In the tea-growing state of Assam -- whose hilly terrain forced election officials to ride on elephants to some remote areas -- six people were killed, mostly in attacks by separatist militants. The rebels killed 37 political workers and candidates and wounded 80 people in the three weeks before the poll. Six voting officials were also kidnapped. Despite the violence, both states are reported to have witnessed a fairly heavy turnout with long queues of people at polling stations. CRUDE BOMBS, KNIVES AND SWORDS In one incident, two people who tried to disrupt voting were lynched. "The crowd overpowered them and they were beaten to death on the spot," a police spokesman said. In Kerala, police said three people were injured when crude bombs were thrown by leftist supporters at Congress workers. Five BJP activists were caught with knives and swords and in the Kannur district, which has a history of election violence, some officials were prevented from entering polling booths. But in Cochin, the state's commercial capital, there was a festive atmosphere, with roads festooned with flags and banners. Men dressed in white cotton wraps and women in brightly colored sarees queued up, many of them apprehensive about the almost universal introduction of electronic voting machines. Chief Election Commissioner Gill denied talk that the machines could be tampered with and said Britain, which holds elections in June, should take a leaf out of its former colony's book rather than fiddle around with old-fashioned voting slips. Counting begins on Sunday and results are expected later the same day. SPAM TO FOLLOW Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
