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NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP) A total 63 percent of the 33 million registered voters in India's riot-ravaged western state of Gujarat voted in assembly elections Thursday, electoral official A. N. Jha told a news conference here.

In the 1998 state poll, 59.3 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

"Polling across the state was around 63 percent," Jha said. "There may be variations as these are only preliminary reports."

An exit poll put India's ruling Hindu nationalists ahead in voting in the wealthy western state, where riots have claimed up to 2,000 lives in the last year, the private Zee TV network announced.

Zee TV said based on data collected by the independent Talim Research Foundation, the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP was poised to grab around 100 of the state legislature's 181 constituencies, while 70 were set to fall into the hands of the opposition Congress party.

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main commercial city, state chief election commissioner Gurucharan Singh told AFP voting had proceeded smoothly.

"It was generally peaceful, barring four or five small incidents of bogus voting, damaging of voting machines and complaints of names missing on voters lists," he said.

Gujarat Home Secretary K. Nityanandam echoed Singh's assessment.

"It has been a phenomenal success in holding elections as far as law and order is concerned. The elections passed off peacefully except for one incident in Jambusar and another in Kheda district," he said from Ahmedabad.

In Jambusar in Bharuch district, two shops were burnt and a truck destroyed when a quarrel broke out after a woman was teased by a crowd.

Police imposed a curfew in the town.

In Kheda district, one person was stabbed but he survived the attack.

Electoral commission spokesman Jha described complaints by voters as "unfortunate."

"Adequate time was given to voters to file their names if they were not there. The draft electoral rolls were also given to national political parties."

By and large, he added, "it was a peaceful poll. No major incident was reported. However, some minor incidents were reported."

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