Thousands of people in colourful ethnic dresses stood in long lines outside voting booths in three districts, dominated by the Maoist rebels who have given a poll boycott call, in the first of the five-phase election process.

Indian Maoists, who control vast swathes of rural India along its eastern flank, denounce elections and claim to fight for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers.

Past elections in the eastern state, which shares a long border with Bangladesh, have been plagued by Maoist violence as well as frequent clashes between rival political groups.

“We have an unprecedented security cover and a tight vigil is being maintained at every polling booth,” Raj Kanojia, a top police officer, told Reuters by telephone. “Voting is peaceful.”

The state’s ruling leftists are fighting the main opposition Congress party, which heads the federal government.

The left parties support the Congress coalition in New Delhi but are pitted against it in the state polls where the communists are aiming to win power for the seventh straight term since 1977.

Ignoring the Maoist boycott call, voters, including many women, trickled into booths from early in the day, as security forces with automatic weapons, watched over them.

The Maoist threat meant helicopters had to be used to fly polling personnel and voting machines to several ”hyper-sensitive” areas, police said.

In the run up to the polls, senior left party leaders have been vociferous about “reviewing” their support to the Congress coalition, accusing them of selling out to the United States by signing a landmark civil nuclear energy cooperation deal.

India and the United States finalised the pact during a March visit to New Delhi by President George W. Bush. The deal has to be approved by the U.S. Congress.

The left parties have also been critical of the Congress government’s economic polices, especially its ongoing drive to privatise state firms.

However, in West Bengal, reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been riding a wave of economic liberalisation and has focused more on industry and investment, leaving the opposition searching for issues.

Pre-poll surveys have so far projected a grim picture for the opposition Congress and a Hindu nationalist alliance with the left predicted to wrest 220-230 seats in the 294-seat assembly.