PATNA, India - Suspected communist rebels blew up a jeep carrying polling officials in eastern India, killing five people as part of a wave of violence that has marred India's elections, officials said Friday.

Several electronic voting machines being transported in the jeep were destroyed in Thursday's land mine attack, forcing election officials to announce that citizens in the eastern district would have to revote.

The assault in Bihar state came just after voting ended in the eastern strongholds of communist guerrillas who have fought for decades, claiming to defend the rights of poor farmers and landless workers. They often attack police, landlords and local politicians, as well as poor villagers they accuse of working with authorities.

The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, threatened to kill citizens participating in the election, which they dismiss as a "fake exercise."

Four police officers and one election official died and the jeep driver was hospitalized with serious injuries in the Muzzafarpur district, nearly 75 kilometres east of the Bihar state capital of Patna, said police official Neelmani, who uses one name. The attackers fled, he said.

The officials were returning to their headquarters with electronic voting machines and other election materials, some of which were destroyed, said election official Subhir Rakesh. The vote in the district would be held again, but officials have yet to decide on a date, he said.

Also Thursday, ethnic separatist rebels killed two policemen when they opened fire on the convoy of a politician in India's remote northeast.

"We were in a convoy of 40 cars with my supporters when militants attacked with automatic weapons," Sansuma Khungur Bwiswmutiary, a lawmaker in the Indian parliament seeking re-election, said Friday. "My security officers returned fire enabling me and my wife to get out of the car and hide in a bamboo grove along the road."

The attack occurred in India's Assam state, where several groups have been fighting for an independent homeland or greater autonomy from India.

At least 17 people were killed by suspected insurgents during last week's voting in central and eastern India.

A brutal heat wave sweeping much of India, together with threats of violence from the communist guerillas, kept millions away from the polls Thursday. The heat caused the death of one election official and hospitalization of another in the eastern state of Orissa, said Prabhakar Sahu, a spokesman for the election commission.

The five-phased election ends May 13, and results are expected May 16. With more than 700 million voters, India normally holds staggered elections for logistical and security reasons.

Polls indicate neither the Congress party, which leads the governing coalition, nor the main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, will win enough seats in the 543-seat lower house of Parliament to rule on their own.

That means the election will likely leave India with a shaky coalition government cobbled together from across the political spectrum -- a situation giving the next prime minister little time to deal with a growing number of challenges like the economic crisis.

Also Thursday, a magistrate and a police officer were wounded in an attack on their jeep in Jharkhand state, said state spokesman S.P. Pradhan. Separately, suspected Maoist rebels burned jeeps loaded with voting machines and other election materials, said police Superintendent Navin Kumar Singh.

Many in the state said the threats persuaded them not to vote.

"I don't want to annoy them. They can harm me and my business," said Anil Agarwal, a businessman in the town of Giridh. Officials said turnout in Jharkhand was about 50 per cent, and only 45 per cent in the neighboring state of Bihar.