Voters headed to the polls Monday in the final phase of India's marathon election, with hardliner Narendra Modi expected to lead his Hindu nationalists to victory after 10 years of Congress party rule.

Modi, of the right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, was vying to win a seat in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi five weeks after the start of the world's biggest election, which has been marred by religious divisions and personal attacks. 

India's frontrunner for prime minister Narendra Modi urged voters to turn out in record numbers to throw the scandal-plagued Congress party from power as a bitter, marathon election campaign drew to a close.

Modi, from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, made his final appeal to voters before the last round of voting on Monday in the world's biggest election expected to catapult the Hindu nationalist hardliner to power.

India's election commission charged Rahul Gandhi with breaching its code of conduct Friday after the ruling Congress party's frontman in ongoing polls allegedly warned that an opposition victory would trigger carnage.

Following a complaint by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the commission wrote to Gandhi saying he appeared to have the broken the code in a speech in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on May 1 and gave him until Monday to respond.

India's right-wing opposition on Friday voiced growing confidence of a decisive victory in a marathon election, as potential partners distanced themselves from the favorite to become prime minister, Narendra Modi.

"There's no need to wait until the 16th as the people have already decided," a bullish Modi told supporters a week ahead of the announcement of results from the world's biggest general election.

Indian police discovered five more bodies of women and children Wednesday after a "barbaric" rampage by tribal separatists targeting Muslims in northeast Assam, taking the total number killed to 43, officials said.

The bodies were found as authorities continued their search of two districts in the remote tea-growing state where masked gunmen last week shot dead Muslim villagers including babies as they slept.

Protesters and police clashed but streets were otherwise largely deserted Wednesday in the final day of voting in Indian Kashmir for the national election, as boycott calls and fears of violence kept many voters away.

Turnout in the Kashmir Valley constituency voting was about 30 percent two hours before polls closed.

A passenger train derailed in western India on Sunday, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 100 as rescue workers raced to free those still trapped, a police official said.

The train's engine and four of its carriages jumped the tracks in the western state of Maharashtra 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Mumbai, police control room official Ramchandra Kamre told Agence France Presse in Raigad district, where the accident occurred.

Indian soldiers patrolled streets in northeast Assam Sunday as the number of Muslims killed in carnage blamed on tribal separatists rose to 35 with the discovery of more bodies, police said.

Thousands of families have fled their homes since separatists went on the rampage in two districts of the restive tea-growing region, shooting dead Muslims including women and children as young as 18 months as they slept.

Police found nine more bodies Saturday after a deadly rampage by tribal separatists in India's remote northeastern Assam state, taking the death toll to 32 following two days of violence.

The latest fighting in the area, a site of frequent ethnic clashes, began on Thursday with the killing of 11 Bengali-speaking Muslim villagers, followed by more bloodshed Friday when 12 others were slain.

Tribal separatists killed at least 12 Muslims in India's remote northeastern state of Assam on Friday, taking the toll to 23 following two days of deadly carnage, police said.

"Some 10 heavily armed militants went on a rampage, torching about 20 houses and killing at least 12 people," police inspector general S. N. Singh told Agence France Presse.