In scorching heat, voters trickled into polling booths in 136 seats from the financial hub of Bombay to the bellwether northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the Kashmir Valley, the heart of Jammu and Kashmir.

Four of the deaths occurred in the northeastern state of Manipur, where separatist rebels exploded bombs and imposed a shutdown to keep away voters, police said.

Another took place in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh where a group of men who said they were supporters of the main opposition Congress party hacked to death a worker of the regional Telegu Desam Party (TDP) which rules the province, said Ravi Shankar, a senior police official.

The other death occurred in the lawless eastern state of Bihar, when a bomb exploded overnight while a group was assembling the device in Ishwapur district 100km from the state capital Patna.

Although Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies are expected to win another five-year term on a platform of peace and prosperity, opinion polls show the once dominant Congress party has narrowed the gap.

The presence of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi -- the charismatic children of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and the latest torchbearers of the Nehru-Gandhi family -- revitalised a listless Congress campaign in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 170 million people and one of its poorest.

"I have voted for stability," housewife Neena Phadnis, 60, said after voting for the BJP in Bombay, where financial markets and shops were closed for the day. "I want a government that will bring down the prices of essential commodities."

More than 670 million people are eligible to vote in the five-stage poll that ends on May 10. Votes will be counted on May 13 and results are expected that day.

Troops were on high alert at the 1,080 polling stations in Srinagar, the urban hub of an anti-Indian insurgency, and Budgam, part of the same constituency voting in the staggered elections.

A general strike called by separatists emptied Srinagar, a city of 1.2 million people, of traffic and shut businesses and shops as security forces patrolled the streets.

Both separatists and armed rebels have called for a poll boycott, saying the elections would not resolve the 15-year-old revolt, and there were no signs of voter queues.

"Nobody is going to come to vote -- nobody wants to go into the clutches of death," said Aziz Iron, a polling official at a heavily protected booth with soldiers in bullet-proof vests and armed with machine guns standing behind sandbags.

COMPELLED, DEVOTED
Iron, who works in the state's education department, said he had been ordered to staff the booth or be sacked.

"We have been compelled to come here," he said. "The government of India is trying to show the world that this is an integral part of India. I don't agree with it."

On Sunday, suspected rebels threw a grenade at Mehbooba Mufti, popular leader of the state's ruling People's Democratic Party. She escaped unhurt but at least three people were killed and almost 50 were wounded.