PHASE 5 of India’s six-week election gets underway tomorrow — but communists warn that the Electoral Commission is ignoring multiple violations.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) complains that India’s electoral authorities ignore regular instances of BJP candidates, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inciting communal hatred against Muslims, and even instances of police violence against Muslim voters.

CPI-M outlet People’s Democracy reported today that in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal constituency, groups of police officers attacked people queueing to vote in the mainly Muslim Mansoorpur, Ovari, Shahbazpur Kalan and Mubarakpur villages, snatching ID cards and voting slips and beating them with lathis (iron-bound bamboo rods often carried by police in India).