UPDATE 1-India's Modi plays Hindu card in tight state poll

(Adds election panel notice)

By Simon Denyer

GODHRA, India (Reuters) - Narendra Modi, the charismatic but controversial chief minister of Gujarat, is back on the offensive, playing the Hindu nationalist card ahead of this month's state election.

Dressed in a crisp orange waistcoat, Modi is touring Gujarat, boasting of his development record and attacking his rival, the Italian-born leader of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, as soft on Muslim "terrorists".

The vote, in which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in a straight fight with Congress, is seen as a key barometer of the country's two main parties' fortunes as the countdown begins to national polls due by mid-2009.

But Modi has run into trouble with the country's powerful Election Commission, which has criticised him for creating communal hatred and tension, for justifying the extra-judicial killing of a Muslim criminal.

Earlier this year, his government admitted that Sohrabuddin Sheikh had been shot dead by police in a staged gunbattle, on the pretext that he was conspiring to kill Modi.

"What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK-47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and wanted to enter Gujarat?," Modi told a rally on Tuesday.

When the crowd shouted "kill him, kill him", Modi replied: "Does my government need Soniaben's (sister Sonia) permission for this?"