November 17, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 11, 1423

NEW DELHI, Nov 16: India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party is set to sweep next month’s election in the volatile western state of Gujarat on the back of a deep religious divide with Muslims, an opinion poll said on Saturday.

The state assembly election in Gujarat, where more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the country’s worst bloodshed in a decade, has become a key test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose federal coalition faces a general election in 2004.

Analysts say a big win in Gujarat, the last major state in which the BJP holds power, could tempt it to call an early election to endorse its brand of Hindu militancy. Defeat could undermine support for the BJP among its 20-odd federal coalition partners.

An opinion poll published by India Today magazine said Gujarat had become completely polarized along sectarian lines, and would likely return the BJP to power with a two-thirds majority in the Dec 12 election.

Nearly half of those surveyed said BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi, reviled by critics who say he turned a blind eye to the killings of Muslims in February and March, was their choice to lead the state again.

Only 29 percent picked Shankersinh Vaghela, a leader of the Congress party, as their choice for chief minister.

“A sense of Hinduness, it would seem has dramatically subsumed caste, class, and gender differences,” the magazine said of the results of its poll carried out among 9,481 eligible voters across Gujarat.

“The magnitude of polarization along sectarian lines is staggering...a dramatic conclusion is inescapable. Gujarat is revelling in its honeymoon with Modi,” the magazine said.—Reuters