Troops sent to guard Indian polls

AHMADABAD, India -- About 55,000 troops were deployed Wednesday to prevent election violence in Gujarat state, where more than 1,000 people died in three months of Hindu-Muslim riots earlier this year.

Polls open today for statewide legislative elections, but in what may be a taste of violence to come, a crowd of 1,000 Hindus in Ahmadabad on Wednesday threw stones at houses where 60 Muslims live. Two Muslim men were injured before police arrived and fired into the air to disperse the crowd.

Elsewhere in Gujarat, rival political workers clashed in the village of Dharia when supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party armed with sticks and daggers attacked opposition Congress party members, police said.

Police fear more violence is likely after the election results are announced Sunday.

"India ... is only for the Hindus," read fliers that appeared under doors Wednesday, urging the majority population to re-elect the Bharatiya Janata Party so it could "curb the Muslims."

The World Hindu Council, a close affiliate of the party, which governs Gujarat state 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 council opposes India's secular constitution, demanding a Hindu nation. The Bharatiya Janata Party promotes dominance for Hindus, who make up 82 percent of India's 1-billion people. But Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee insists India will remain true to its secular roots.

The BJP predicted a 70 percent voter turnout in its tight race in Gujarat against the secular Congress party. A Gujarat loss could affect the party's prospects in other state elections next year and shake the 19-party coalition before nationwide 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 were the primary victims of this year's religious violence.

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.

Religious violence erupted across Gujarat on Feb. 27, when a Muslim mob set fire to a train, killing 60 Hindus. The BJP viewed that as a terrorist attack, but said the Hindus who burned Muslim neighborhoods were provoked by the desire to defend their religion.

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