AHMEDABAD, Dec 11: India’s Gujarat state voted on Tuesday to decide if a Hindu hardliner accused of turning a blind eye to bloody anti-Muslim riots five years ago will stay in power.

Some 17.9 million voters were eligible to casts ballots for 87 seats in the western state’s 182-member assembly. The remaining constituencies will vote on Dec 16, with results expected on Dec 23.

The incumbent chief minister and favourite is Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government (BJP).

The campaign has been overshadowed by revived allegations that he deliberately failed to halt religious riots in 2002 in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked, burnt and shot to death.

During the campaign, he was also quoted as condoning the extra-judicial killing of a Muslim man falsely accused of plotting to assassinate him.

“There is an atmosphere of fear in Gujarat and it is not good for the state or the development of Gujarat,” said India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh, whose Congress party governs India at the federal level.

“The kind of atmosphere that is prevailing in Gujarat is not conducive for the state to move forward,” the premier told a news conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s state capital.

More than 50,000 federal police, assisted by local security personnel, were guarding the 19,924 polling booths to ensure there were no irregularities, in a state where tensions still exist between Muslims and Hindus.

For Modi supporters, the impeccably groomed politician is responsible for helping spur rapid economic development in the western state, drawing massive investment and improving infrastructure.

The BJP hope that a win by Modi could jumpstart the party’s flagging fortunes on a national level.

Modi, 57, nicknamed the Hindu nationalists’ ‘poster boy’, has sought to re-brand himself, making economic development his central plank, telling voters that “Gujarat is progressing.”

But Singh, who is fearful of a resurgent BJP on the national level, poured scorn on his rivals’ campaign. “There is a propaganda that Gujarat made strides because of state government efforts,” he said.—AFP