Modi has been criticized for saying revenge attacks against Muslims were understandable

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AHMEDABAD, India (CNN) -- The ruling Hindu nationalist party has won one of the most emotionally and religiously charged elections in Indian history, recording a sweeping victory in the violence wracked western state of Gujarat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has governed Gujarat since 1998 and also heads India's national coalition government, campaigned on a hardline Hindu platform.

The BJP took 126 of the 182 seats in Gujarat's legislature, Reuters reports.

Accepting defeat, the opposition Congress Party said the BJP won a victory for communal forces by dividing majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

Police meanwhile say they have found the body of a political activist following celebrations over the ruling party's victory.

Some BJP supporters celebrated near a river in the town of Bajkot, and hours later the body of a BJP activist was found there, Guarat police said.

Police have not identified the cause of the man's death.

Gujarat was the scene of India's worst religious violence in a decade after nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in protests and riots earlier this year.

The riots were triggered when a train carrying Hindu activists was set on fire by a suspected Muslim mob in the Gujarat town of Godhra, and 58 people died.

With fears of more bloodshed high, more than 10,000 police and paramilitary forces were deployed for election security as nearly 62 percent of Gujarat's 33 million voters cast their ballots in Thursday's state assembly poll.

Revenge riots

The BJP's campaign was led by chief minister Narendra Modi, who is accused by human rights groups of deliberately failing to protect Muslims during the rioting, a charge he denies.

The chief minister, who won his state assembly seat in Mananagar, denies he was involved in the rioting but as he campaigned to be re-elected, his speeches made much of the train burning in Godhra, and no mention of the violence that followed.

Observers said Modi played the religious card for the poll, using references to the Godhra killings to help stir up Hindu fear of Muslims.

Modi also proclaimed during election speeches that he and his party were the only suitable candidates that could protect Gujarat from neighboring Islamic Pakistan, its President Pervez Musharraf and extremist Muslim militants.

In particular, Modi referred to an attack on the Akshardham temple in September this year, when more than 30 Hindu devotees were shot dead by two gunmen, an attack the BJP blamed on Pakistan.

"Only Modi can protect us Hindus," says businessman Viresh Patel at one voting booth, explaining why he voted for the BJP Thursday.

As Modi's hardline speeches seemed to attract and consolidate right wing Hindu voters, Muslim clerics in the state released "fatwas" or religious orders to their congregations to vote against the BJP and for the opposition congress party.

The Congress Party counted on Muslim votes in the state, but Muslims account for only 10 percent of the population in Gujarat.

The strong showing by the BJP in Gujarat could persuade the party to use the same Hindu fundalmentalist platform in other state polls or the national election due by 2004.

-- CNN's Suhasini Haidar contributed to this report.