Police at polls as future of Mrs Gandhi weighed

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 8

Police at polls as future of Mrs Gandhi weighed

I NZPA-Reuter Chikmagalur, India I Wooed and cajoled in one |of India’s most intensive (political campaigns, a record ■ number of voters have gone |to the polls under heavy j police guard to decide '.whether the former Prime i Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, Iwill return to India’s Parliament. I The campaign in the cof- ; fee-growing district of Chikmayalur, 1770 km south of New Delhi was tense and sometimes violent. Rioting last week left a 19-year-oid woman dead and scores injured. Three thousand state and national policemen were called out to protect polling stations. Officials said more than 70 per cent, of the 595,392 eligible voters had turned out, despite heavy rains. The vote count will begin today, and the result is expected later that day officials have said.

. After the polls opened, Mrs Gandhi’s supporters and ■ backers of her opponent from the ruling Janata Party clashed. Three people were ! slightly injured. In a separate incident, Mr D. B. Chandre Gowda, a

Gandhi supporter whose resignation from Parliament opened the seat that Mrs Gandhi campaigned for, was mobbed by Janata Party adherents and had to be rescued by policemen. The election provided Mrs Gandhi with the first opportunity to have her name on a ballot since her defeat in the March, 1977 General Election, which put an end to her 11-year rule as Prime Minister. Mrs Gandhi’s downfall last year was attributed to the state of emergency she imposed in 1975 and continued for almost two years. Her successor, the Prime Minister (Mr Morarji Desai) has vowed to prosecute the 60-year-old Mrs Gandhi for allegedly assuming emergency power illegally. Mrs Gandhi’s main opponent was v Mr Veerendra > Patil, aged 54, a former Chief Minister of the state of ■ Karnataka, where Chikmagai lur lies.