NEW DELHI, 25 October — The Election Commission is gearing up to hold assembly elections in violence-torn Gujarat by mid-December, officials said here yesterday. "A formal announcement on holding elections to the Gujarat assembly is expected by the first week of November," a senior Election Commission official said. "The elections are likely to be held in mid-December."

Officials of the autonomous poll panel, however, conceded that holding of free and fair elections in Gujarat — rocked this year by the worst sectarian violence witnessed by India in a decade — could be as difficult a task as the poll in Jammu and Kashmir.

"This could be as big a test as the Kashmir elections. So many people have been displaced by the violence in Gujarat and the situation is very sensitive in many areas," one official told IANS.

Political parties, media and foreign diplomats have described the state elections held in Kashmir in September-October as the fairest of poll held in the troubled state.

Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh had earlier told the Supreme Court that elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly would be held in November-December.

"A summary revision of electoral rolls has been done and the chief election commissioner is expected to visit Gujarat shortly after the dates for the poll are announced," an Election Commission official said.

The commission has also asked the Gujarat government to transfer civilians or police officials who have been four or more years in one job so that those who had developed ties with local politicians were moved out.

The poll panel has been under pressure from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold early elections in Gujarat.

But opposition parties have accused the BJP of trying to exploit the Hindu-Muslim polarization following fierce sectarian violence in the state in February-May.

At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, lost their lives in the violence.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, accused by opposition parties and rights groups of turning a blind eye to violence by Hindu groups, dissolved the state assembly in July and called for early elections.

The deadline for holding poll within six months of the last assembly session, as prescribed by one constitutional provision, lapsed on Oct. 8.

The Election Commission turned down the plea to hold elections by October after Lyngdoh visited the state in August and concluded that the situation there was far from normal.

The opposition Congress party has mounted a spirited challenge to the BJP in Gujarat.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who represents Gujarat capital Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha, met senior state BJP leaders Wednesday in Ahmedabad.