SUMERBANDH/PHIRINGIA (KANDHAMAL): A day before the second phase polls , Maoists on Wednesday resorted to violence by gunning down a polling party member and torching three vehicles carrying polling officials in Kandhamal district. Two separate Maoist incidents occurred in Phiringia block The incident of gunning down a polling party member occurred near Barahala village under Gochhapada police limits , 85 km from district headquarters town Phulbani at around 1.30pm. When the polling party was going to Barahala booth, a landmine planted by Maoists went off in front of the vehicle. The driver immediately stopped the vehicle and made a 'U' turn to return. At the same time the ultras hid inside the forest fired at the polling party.Sanjukta Digal, 26, a gram rozgar sevak at Luisingi panchayat, received grievous injury in the firing. The vehicle drove past the spot and escaped another attack. Sanju died on the way. Police sent her body for postmortem.Another incident happened at around 11.30am, when the polling party was passing the Ribilada ghati between Ribilada and Sumerbandh villages under Phiringia police limits. The Maoists had planted two landmines on the ghati. Fortunately, the polling party got escaped from the land mine explosion.The polling officials were on the way to Mungunpadar polling booth in Sumerbandh Panchayat.According to locals, one of the landmines went off after the vehicles passed it. The ultras present over there immediately came to the middle of the road and stopped the vehicles- two cars and a motorcycle. They asked the polling officials to come out of the vehicles before setting these cars and motorcycle on fire.While one car was on the road, the second one fell into the slope of the ghati. After this incident, polling party returned to Phiringia without going to the polling booth.Jagannath Rana, a village level worker of Sumerbandh, said he knew about the incident after the hearing a loud explosion. When villagers reached the spot the vehicles were on the fire.Kandhamal SP Pratik Singh said combing operation will be intensified in the area. A polling party official has been killed by the Maoists, but nobody was harmed in the second incident.