NEW DELHI — In a set of telephone transcripts and recordings that were published by an Indian website this month, high-ranking intelligence and security officers from the western state of Gujarat could be heard reporting back on an unusual assignment: Covertly tracing every movement of a young woman and meticulously documenting her interactions with men.

Their findings were passed to another high-ranking official they referred to as Saheb.

No one mentions his name in the transcripts, but the context leaves little doubt that Saheb is Mr Narendra Modi, Gujarat’s Chief Minister, who hopes to be India’s next Prime Minister.

The “snooping controversy”, as it has been called by Indian newspapers, comes six months before national elections, as Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rides a wave of anti-incumbency sentiment.

After a flurry of reports in the Indian news media, Mr Modi’s government on Monday appointed a two-member commission to investigate charges that surveillance of the young woman had been carried out illegally.

A spokeswoman for Mr Modi’s party has acknowledged that he had used government resources to monitor “the girl”, but said he did so because her father had requested security measures to be taken for her, so it was not a violation of her rights.

Another version has come from a suspended civil servant from Gujarat, who said he fell out with Mr Modi as he had information about a secret relationship between the leader and the young woman, who is an architect.

The woman, who has since married, has made no public statements.

The matter is unlikely to drive away Mr Modi’s supporters, who are braced for a season of partisan exposes. But it has set off a discussion of the use of state surveillance in Gujarat, which Mr Modi has run with a firm grip since 2001.

“The fact is that, for a lot of people, this is part of his appeal — that he is a tough leader (and) does what he thinks needs to be done,” said Mr Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express daily.

“I think people are overcorrecting for a very weak government, and there is a hankering for a strong government — whatever a strong government means.”

But Mr Gupta added that undecided voters might be concerned that Mr Modi had used the police to follow the woman, who was not suspected of any crime.

“People who are in the middle may worry that, if this guy comes to power, he’ll have many more agencies under him,” he said.

Cobrapost, the website that published the transcripts, said they were provided to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation this year by a Gujarat police officer, GL Singhal, who is accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings and has decided to cooperate with the authorities.

According to the transcripts, Mr Amit Shah, one of Mr Modi’s top aides, supervised the operation.

Mr Shah instructed officers to collect footage from surveillance cameras, supply records from the woman’s phone carrier, follow her to gyms and shopping malls, and tail her from an airport arrival lounge.

“In case she escapes, we can keep a vigil at the hotel,” said Mr Shah, according to the transcripts.

Singhal recounted the woman’s telephone conversations, remarking: “Sir, she talks very rudely with her mother.”

Mr Shah nervously urged his subordinate not to allow the woman to slip away, saying repeatedly: “Saheb comes to know of everything.”

Ms Meenakshi Lekhi, a spokeswoman for the BJP, questioned why “CDs that were part of official state property were made available to members of the opposition” and dismissed them as a smear by the Congress Party, which leads the national government.

Another BJP spokeswoman said later that the transcripts might not be authentic.

Mr Bharat Desai, Editor of the Gujarat edition of The Times of India, said the “snooping scandal” would have little impact in the Chief Minister’s home state because “it’s a known fact that a lot of telephones are illegally tapped here”.

THE NEW YORK TIMES