Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday returned to the western Indian province of Gujarat facing a dilemma.
His second and final round of campaigning was tempered by predictions that a victory for his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state assembly elections could end his own political career.
To many observers, a victory for the BJP in Gujarat would mean that the party's radical Hindu elements, intent on converting India - a secular democracy with a large Muslim minority - into a die-hard Hindu nation, had finally triumphed over the moderate Mr Vajpayee.
The Hindu radicals have been on the ascendant in the BJP since sectarian riots erupted on February 27 after a mob torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims in the town of Godhra in Gujarat.
In a damning report on the religious violence, an independent panel headed by retired judges indicted the state's chief minister, Narendra Modi, as 'the chief author and architect of all that happened'.
But far from damaging his political career, the condemnation has propelled Mr Modi from anonymity to becoming the poster boy for Hindu radicals.