With a religious divide openly on show, voters in India's Gujarat state cast their ballots on Sunday in an election that will decide the fate of a controversial leader and may influence the timing of national polls.
Amid tight security, voters queued up outside election stations in districts which were at the eye of 2002 communal riots and which swept chief minister Narendra Modi and his pro-Hindu message to power in their aftermath.
Gujarat, one of India's richest and fastest growing states but also one of its most communally divided, is being closely watched as a barometer of the fortunes of the country's two main parties ahead of national elections. They are due by mid-2009 but could come earlier with the Congress-led ruling coalition in New Delhi wobbling under pressure from key communist allies who oppose a nuclear energy deal with the United States.
"Voting is slow but it is a holiday so people will come out at a leisurely pace. We are expecting a good turnout," said Gujarat's chief electoral officer V.K. Babbar as voters trickled into the polling stations.
Officials said there had been no reports of violence following an often angry build-up to the vote, but there had been problems with some electronic voting machines.
The religious polarisation which affects large parts of Gujarat was plain for all to see. "Modi is our only choice. He is the star of Gujarat," said 35-year-old businessman Mayank Patel as he waited to vote on a chilly winter morning in the state's main city Ahmedabad. "He is the saviour of Hindu religion." A few kilometres away, the mood was very different.
"Modi has made us widows and our children are orphans, that's the great work he's done," said Fatima Begum, a Muslim resident of the city's Juhapura area. "I want him to face defeat forever." Muslims make up nine percent of the state's population, and feel they have been neglected and marginalised with the welfare of Hindus the Modi government's only priority.
Comments
Comments are closed.