Bombs Kill Dozens Gathering For Campaign Rally In India

India’s election campaign was rocked Saturday by a series of bomb explosions that killed at least 30 people in the southern city of Coimbatore as thousands gathered for a campaign rally by a Hindu nationalist leader who is one of the country’s most controversial political figures.

Hospital spokesmen said they expected the death toll to rise since the 50 people wounded by the blasts were in critical condition.

The explosions came two days before the first round of voting in the election, on Monday, and reports from the scene suggested that whoever was responsible intended to influence the outcome of the close-run contest between the Hindu nationalists and their opponents, principally the Congress Party.

Police in Coimbatore, about 275 miles southwest of Madras in Tamil Nadu state, said that at least 10 bombs planted in parked vehicles had exploded as thousands gathered near the city center for a rally staged by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu nationalist group that opinion polls have shown as the front-runner.

The speaker at the rally was to have been the party’s president, Lal Kishinchand Advani, who is regarded as the architect of policies critics have described as hostile to India’s Muslim minority.

Advani, 70, had not yet reached Coimbatore in his plane when the blasts occurred. He canceled the stop and returned to New Delhi, where he described the attacks as an attempt by opponents to prevent his party from winning its first victory.

As troops moved into the city to restore order, the Tamil Nadu government banned two groups that it described as “Muslim fundamentalist.” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthvel Karunanidhi did not specifically accuse the groups of planting the bombs. But he said: “It will not be wrong to suspect the hands of foreign agencies, who are out to derail the democratic process here.”