AHMEDABAD, India, 12 December 2002 — The ruling Hindu fundamentalist party in Gujarat state distanced itself from local party officials who called today’s elections a “religious war,” but an affiliate group distributed more virulent anti-Muslim propaganda just before the voting.

Some 55,000 troops were deployed to guard polling booths and prevent clashes in the western state where more than 1,000 people died in three months of Hindu-Muslim riots this year.

A crowd of 1,000 Hindus threw stones yesterday at three double-story houses where 60 Muslims live in the volatile Shahpur neighborhood of Ahmedabad, the city where most of the violence occurred this year. Two Muslim men were injured and residents complained that state police posted nearby only advised the Muslims to stay indoors. Eventually, another police unit arrived, firing in the air to disperse the crowd.

Police fear violence is more likely after results are announced on Sunday from the voting between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (0230-1130 GMT) today.

“India...is only for Hindus,” read the flyers that appeared under doors yesterday, urging the majority population to re-elect the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) so it could “curb the Muslims.”

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a close affiliate of the BJP that governs Gujarat and India, sought to remind voters “how Muslims are targeting the innocent Hindus under the leadership of the Pakistani president,” said the group’s spokesman, Kaushik Mehta.

The BJP predicted a 70 percent voter turnout in its tight race against the secular Congress party. A Gujarat loss could affect the BJP’s prospects in other state elections next year, and shake the 19-party national coalition before parliamentary elections in 2004.

The turnout was 45 percent in the 1998 Gujarat election, when the BJP ousted Congress with the help of the state’s large Muslim population, 12 percent of the 33.2 million voters. The BJP won 117 seats to 53 for Congress in the 182-seat legislature.

Muslims became the main victims of this year’s religious violence. “In this election, it’s not possible for them to vote for the BJP. They have suffered a lot and they believe the BJP has done that,” acknowledged the BJP state president, Rajendra Sinh Rana.

In the town of Dahod, BJP supporters stoned a car carrying a minister from the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh. The minister, Bala Bachchan of the Congress party, escaped unhurt after his bodyguard fired in the air to disperse the crowd.

Police said hundreds of potential troublemakers had been detained to prevent any outbreak of violence in the state.

Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh said officials went to great lengths to include on the electoral rolls 176,000 people who fled during the riots.

A government official said 17 foreign diplomats were expected to unofficially observe the elections. Eight are from the United States, three from Britain, one each from Italy and Sweden and two each from the European Union and the Netherlands.

“Eight of these diplomats have already arrived in Gujarat and are spreading out in various parts of the state,” said Pankaj Kumar, Gujarat’s relief commissioner.

“One of the teams would go to Godhra to observe the polling there,” he said. The sectarian violence that rocked the state was triggered when a train carrying Hindu activists was torched at Godhra by a mob, leaving 58 people dead. (Agencies)