NEW DELHI, India -- An assassin killed one of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's candidates, six people died in riots, and the death toll from a tribal massacre rose to 150 Tuesday in election violence in northeastern Assam state.
The new deaths pushed to at least 273 the 15-day toll from clashes triggered by native Assamese opposition to voting rights for Bengali immigrants.
A bomb blast in the state capital of Gauhati, 900 miles east of New Delhi, injured 13 others Tuesday, officials said.
Officials said 50 people in addition to the 100 first reported were killed in the worst single incident -- a massacre Saturday night of Assamese at the hands of Bodo tribesmen, two news agencies reported.
Rescue officials rushed aid to 7,500 Assamese survivors left homeless after the Bodo tribesmen burned their homes. Reports were delayed because the tribesmen also burnt bridges leading to the area, officials said.
Police shot dead three rioters in districts outside Gauhati and three more people died in clashes between Bengalis and Assamese demanding a boycott of the polls near the capital.
Mrs. Gandhi's Congress-I party candidate, Satya N. Ram, was killed while addressing a meeting in a tea garden in Gauhati, officials said. It was not clear what kind of weapon was used to kill him and they gave no more details.
At least 116 people died in earlier clashes between armed mobs, police shootings and arson attacks. The voting began Monday, continues Thursday and concludes Sunday.
Violence erupted Feb. 1 when militant Assamese called a boycott of the polls and began rioting to stop 4 million immigrants from Bangladesh from voting in the elections.
The election campaign apparently triggered the Saturday night attack by minority Bodo tribesmen armed with machettes, spears, bows and arrows against a cluster of 15 villages, officials told the United News of India.
Government spokesmen said Assamese students had been waging 'an aggressive campaign' against the elections in the area, resulting in conflict with the Bodo tribesmen, who are in favor of the polls.
Bodo tribesmen killed two Assamese Hindus Feb. 12 amid rumors that the Assamese kidnapped and killed a tribal candidate, officials said.
The violence peaked when the Bodo tribesmen torched village houses, leaving 7,500 Assamese homeless in the Gohpur area of Darrang district, 60 miles northeast of Gauhati, officials said.
'The situation in the Gohpur area is under control and police reinforcements have been airlifted to the affected villages,' an Assam government spokesman said.
The tribesmen fled into jungles when paramilitary forces reached the carnage site and shot and killed one raider, officials said.
Mrs. Gandhi's candidates are benefiting from the Assamese call to boycott the polls. Opposition parties, except for the Marxists, have joined the boycott, resulting in some of Mrs. Gandhis Congress-I candidates winning seats uncontested.
During three years of negotiations with militant Assamese, Mrs. Gandhi offered to expel about 1 million Bengali illegal immigrants who arrived in Assam after 1971. The Assamese have rejected the offer.
