BJP leader escapes Maoist attack

M. Venkaiah Naidu, former president of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, was flying over Maoist-infested Gaya district when his helicopter ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

After the aircraft landed safely and Naidu and the other occupants left the spot, Maoist rebels set the helicopter ablaze with a petrol bomb, the report said.

Elections are due in Bihar on February 3, 15 and 23.

Most parts of southern Bihar, where Gaya is located, have for decades been hotbeds of a raging Maoist insurgency.

The two main groups active in the region -- the Maoist Communist Centre and the People's War Group -- have called on votes to boycott the polls, saying elections are no solution to the problems of the rural poor whom they say they represent.

The Maoists, who have in the past killed hundreds of people, especially police personnel, often step up violence before elections in Bihar.

Meanwhile, five Maoist rebels were killed in a clash with police in southern Andhra Pradesh state, a PTI report said.

Police chief Swaranjit Sen told reporters that the five died in a gunbattle on Saturday in the jungle some 240km north of the state capital Hyderabad.