Last minute campaigning in tense Gujarat
Indian political parties held street parades today ahead of a crucial election in Gujarat state, where sectarian riots killed more than 1,000 people earlier this year.
Thursday’s vote will test India’s tradition of secular politics, which has been particularly weakened by the clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the western state.
In a final burst of campaigning, party flags flew on motorcycle convoys, drums were pounded on the backs of trucks and loudspeakers wailed from motorised rickshaws.
The leaders of the two main contenders – the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress party that backs secularism- tried to woo voters at rival rallies.
Their supporters went house to house to encourage people to vote.
Opinion polls initially gave the BJP an edge, but the latest surveys indicate a tight race.
The BJP is the party of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose national government faces a national poll in 2004.
A loss in Gujarat could shake Vajpayee’s 19-party coalition government and affect the BJP’s prospects in other state legislature elections scheduled next year.
Religious violence is the main issue in Gujarat.
In February, a Muslim attack on a train killed 60 Hindus and ignited nearly a month of riots that left more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslim, dead.
Sporadic violence has erupted frequently since then and tensions between the Hindu majority and Muslim minority have sharpened.
Critics have accused the Gujarat state government of encouraging communal differences and not doing enough to quell the fighting.
