Northeast Indian state holds legislative election

The northeast Indian state Manipur Saturday started its legislative election for a new 60- member assembly amid tight security, said local media reports. Despite serial bomb blasts in the last week which killed at least one person and injured several others by militant groups, people defied the threats and came out to vote in force, said the reports. Voting is being held at 2,357 polling booths, out of which 875 have been termed hyper-sensitive. With the state's police forces, central paramilitary forces were also deployed for the polls, according to Indo-Asian News Service. Several Indian states are due to hold local legislative elections in the coming weeks, including the biggest state Uttar Pradesh and major agricultural state Punjab.