By Frederick Noronha in Goa

Voters have been queuing at polling booths since early morning

For most of the year, he parodies and criticises Goa's politicians.

But on Monday morning, the cartoonist Alex Fernandes, known as Alexyz, was among the first to queue at a polling station in the village of Siolim, close to the hippy-capital of Anjuna in India's sunny tourist state.

"We don't have much of a choice. We have to vote for the least-evil party. With communal parties showing their ugly face one has to be careful," he says.

Goa, India's smallest state with a population of 1.4 million, has just two parliamentary seats.

Divided opposition

The battle here is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress and its breakaway Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance.

The BJP won both the seats in the previous 1999 elections, largely due to a divided opposition.

This time, voters turned out in good numbers from early in the morning.

"I've reached close to death's door," says Shanta Bapu Morajkar, whose grandson helped her to the polling booth.

Shanta Bapu Morajkar's family say they are for the BJP

She says she does not know her age, but her voter identity card puts it at 80 years.

"We are all for the BJP," says her grandson.

A British tourist seemed to be impressed with the election.

"It looks like a lot of people have been here," said London-based Joe O'Conner, 57, an engineer, on holiday in Goa, taking in the scene outside a polling booth in the seaside village of Calangute.

"I'm glad to see people want to come out and vote. There seem to be a lot of guards around, but I can see why," he said.

In a region that was Portugal's colony for 451 years, the impact of history remains strong.

Religious divides often decide voting preferences, even though Goa is otherwise known for its communal amity.

Goa's beachfront charms also attract a large number of foreign tourists.

Out of an estimated 2 million tourists who visit every year, nearly a quarter-million are European charter tourists, the bulk from Britain.