Srinagar: With the results of state elections in Indian-ruled Kashmir due on October 10, analysts predicted a hung Assembly with no party managing a simple majority in the 87-member House.

"There is a general expectation that the results will yield a hung Assembly," said Tahir Mohiudin, editor of 'Chattan', the region's largest selling Urdu weekly.

Indian Kashmir has been ruled by the National Conference (NC) party headed by Farooq Abdullah for the past six years.

Abdullah managed to secure a 57-seat majority in the last elections in Kashmir in 1996 through alleged large-scale malpractice.

The eruption of the armed militancy in Kashmir can also be traced to the rigged elections of 1987, when the ruling NC allegedly indulged in ballot-stuffing.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the Islamic insurgency in 1989.

However, this time, analysts such as Mohiudin and political parties have said the elections were by and large "free and fair", thanks to the efforts of India's independent Election Commission.

"The elections have been fair as far as the polling booths are concerned," said Mehbooba Mufti, vice president of the regional People's Democratic Party (PDP) and one of Kashmir's prospective Chief Ministerial candidates.

"We have been able to contain the ruling party to the maximum. They have not done what they used to in the past," she said, referring to allegations that the ruling party had engaged previously in blatant vote rigging.

Her views were echoed by other leaders such as Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, the chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Ghulam Mohiudin Sofi, who quit the separatist People's Conference to take part in the state elections.

But while rigging and stuffing of ballot boxes may have been kept to a minimum, analysts said the troubled region could be heading for a period of political uncertainty.

"It seems likely that no one will be able to get the 44 seats needed for a simple majority," analyst Balraj Puri said.

Reports ahead of the counting on October 10 said the NC would probably secure 35-40 seats, with India's main Opposition Congress party and the regional People's Democratic Party (PDP) winning about 20 seats each.

According to Mohiuddin, if the NC does not get a clear majority, it could ask independents for support.

There was also a possibility that the NC, having failed to secure a majority on its own would choose to sit in Opposition, which meant that the Congress party and the PDP could try to form a government with the help of independents.

Reports said Congress and the PDP had begun consultations to form a government in Kashmir last week.

In another development, a group of independent candidates, which announced the formation of a body called the Democratic People's Forum on October 7 said it would support any group wanting to replace the NC in government.

"Kashmir's experiments with coalition governments in the past have not been very successful. So it seems we are heading for a period of political uncertainty," he said.