"We are expecting good results," the main opposition Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said as people voted in numbers in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, which are currently ruled by her party.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made similar claims, as the police reported sporadic attacks on polling stations by Maoist guerrillas in Chhattisgarh.

"BJP is very confident of winning in all the four states because these areas have suffered by the misrule of the Congress," party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told AFP.

The BJP came to power in 1998 leading a 23-party disparate coalition but in the past four years the Congress wrested power in half of India's 28 states as well as in half a dozen town halls and village councils.

Some 94 million voters were eligible to vote in the four states and people enjoyed an extended weekend Monday as most offices, schools and businesses remained shut for the balloting.

In Chhattisgarh, Maoist guerrillas opposing the polls ran away with voting machines from five polling booths in Bijapur assembly and fought a gunbattle with the police elsewhere in the state despite the high security.

More than 500,000 election workers backed by 400,000 police and troops were on guard as the 102,056 polling centres opened 8:00 am (0230 GMT) for nine hours of voting.

Pollsters say a high turnout often indicated dissatisfaction with those currently in power, which would go against the Congress. Other surveys, however, predict the Congress will retain its control over three states while the BJP could wrest power in Madhya Pradesh.

"It seems the entire federal government is fighting the polls in Madhya Pradesh," said the state's Congress Chief Minister Digvijay Singh of desperate pre-poll campaigning by the BJP and its coalition partners.

Hindu nun Uma Bharti, running for the chief ministerial post in Madhya Pradesh for the BJP, scorned Singh and said her party would sail past the Congress, which has run the state for 10 years, when the results are declared on Thursday.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit too predicted a win with "distinction" for Congress in the 70-seat city assembly and charged the BJP with "terrorising" voters during Monday's voting. Casting her vote, Dikshit said Congress had turned the capital of 14 million people into a modern city.

"We have done our job and now we await the approval of the people of our work," the charismatic leader said.

In the fray for the 590 assembly seats up for grabs Monday are 5,348 candidates including eunuchs, street hawkers and former princes.