The court, however, exempted Modi from personal appearance saying, "We do not feel the contemnor needs to be present at this stage."

"Let the notice be issued," a Bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Dalveer Bhandari said at the end of a day-long hearing during which the Gujarat government vehemently opposed the plea for initiating contempt proceeding against Modi for his election speech.

Modi has already been slapped with a notice by the Election Commission on the Sohrabuddin issue.

The order was passed on the application filed by Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of Sohrabuddin, who had alleged that the December 4 speech of Modi allegedly justifying the killing was an intereference with justice on the pending matter and was a gross contempt of court.

Modi, on the same day, dared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to arrest him 'if he has the guts' during a campaign rally in a small tribal town in the Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.

"If you have the guts, Manmohan Singh, arrest me tomorrow morning; arrest anyone you want," Modi thundered during his combative speech.

"Do you think the people of Gujarat will get scared by your threats and vote for the Congress? Brothers and sisters, Gujarat is not going to be frightened. Gujaratis are proud people. I am requesting Congressmen not to keep coming here to threaten us," he added.

Modi was replying to a comment made by Dr Singh at a press conference in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, where he said that criminal cases filed during the communal riots in Gujarat after the Godhra carnage would be reviewed if the Congress comes back to power in Gujarat.

Hitting back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her maut ke saudagar remark, Modi said that it was the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre which was the protector of merchants of death.

Modi pointed out that it has been one year since the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence on Afzal Guru, for his involvement in the attack on Parliament, but the Congress has been protecting him.

Meanwhile, in the first phase of assembly polls in Gujarat, 59.61 per cent exercised their franchise in 14 districts to select candidates to 87 seats, official sources said.

Out of the 1.78 crore voters in the 87 constituencies, 1.06 crore exercised their right to vote on Tuesday of which 57.19 per cent were women and 61.84 per cent male, sources at Gujarat's Chief Electoral Office said.

Narmada district in south Gujarat recorded the highest voting percentage of 69.63 while Saurashtra region's Jamnagar district recorded the lowest at 55.73 per cent.

Kutch had recorded 58.48 per cent voting. The polling percentages in other districts in Saurashtra region were Surendranagar (59.84), Rajkot (58), Junagadh (62.07), Amreli (59.39), Porbandar (56.96) and Bhavnagar (57.77).

The polling percentage in other districts in south Gujarat were Bharuch (64.36), Surat (58.54), Valsad (61.84), Dangs (58.87) and Navsari (64.65).

Voting in the first phase had passed off peacefully barring minor incidents of violence and complaints of irregularities.

Exit polls after the first phase of polling on Tuesday projected Congress making impressive gains and ruling BJP suffering reverses, but one of them showed the saffron party retaining power in the state.

While the survey by Star News poll said Congress will get 37 seats, a gain of seven, the NDTV poll showed that the party will get 43 seats, up by 13 from its 2002 poll tally in south Gujarat and Saurashtra where elections were held.

The NDTV survey put the BJP tally at 40, a loss of 13 seats, while Star News gave the saffron party 48, five less than what it got in the last elections.

The overall projection of Star News for was 115 seats for the BJP, down 12, 64 for Congress, a gain of 13 and three for others.

In rebel-hit Saurashtra, the NDTV survey showed BJP getting 26 seats as against 39 in 2002 polls. The region has 58 constituencies. According to it, Congress will get 31 and others one in the region.

In south Gujarat, BJP, Congress and others maintain their 2002 poll tally winning 14, 12 and two seats respectively, the exit poll said. The region has 28 assembly segments. The NDTV poll left out one seat in Central Gujarat.

The second and final phase of the poll is on Sunday.

Image: Women display their voters identity cards as they wait in line to cast their ballots at a polling centre in Ankewadia village, some 100 km from Ahmedabad, on Tuesday.
Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

Also See: Modi visits his hometown
Gujarat Votes 2007

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