Security alert after Bengal poll

By Subir Bhaumik BBC correspondent in Calcutta

Extra security forces have been deployed in the Indian state of West Bengal after 26 people died in clashes there during elections for village councils.

The turnout was heavy despite the violence

Police also say more than 40 people were injured in the violence, including two polling officials and three policemen.

Despite the violence more than 70% of the voters turned out to elect representatives to more than 50,000 village council seats in West Bengal.

Repolling has been ordered in nearly 100 polling stations where pollitical activists snatched ballot papers or threw bombs to scare away voters.

Counting of votes is due to begin on Tuesday and is likely to take two days to complete.

Violent campaign

The voting was preceded by a violent campaign.

More than 30 people died in the run-up to the elections, with over 20 people injured in violent clashes on Saturday night, the day before the polls opened.

Narayan Chandra Ghosh, Deputy Inspector General of Police, said there had been clashes where "guns, crude bombs and stones were used by opposing political workers".

During their 25 years in power, Bengal's ruling communists have strengthened the village councils, called panchayats.

Political tension has led to many deaths

The have provided them with huge funds for local development, as well as more powers for arbitration in village disputes - something that has reinforced the communists' support base in rural Bengal.

Whoever wins the village councils in Bengal is destined to win the state elections, and most of the state's seats in the national parliament. The stakes are high.

Violence prone

Although the communists - whose period in power is a record for any communist government anywhere in the world - are clearly ahead of the opposition alliance, they are alarmed by a loss of support in certain districts.

The opposition alleges that in those particular areas, the communists have unleashed terror to retain their control.

The communists deny the charge and say the opposition is destined to lose, so they are raising baseless allegations.

The number of people dead is evenly split between the two sides - 17 communist supporters and about as many of those supporting the opposition parties.

About one-seventh of the nearly 45,000 election stations have been classified as sensitive and violence prone.

There has been a deployment of around 100,000 security personnel, many of them in sensitive stations, to ensure peaceful polling.

These are easily West Bengal's most violent elections in recent memory.