Mammoth election is more than halfway done

SAMASTIPUR (AP):

Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country’s gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.

Monday’s polling in the fourth round of multiphase national elections across nine states and one union territory will be pivotal for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it includes some of its strongholds in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Crucial seats in Maharashtra and Bihar states, where the BJP governs in alliances with regional parties, are also up for grabs in this phase.

In Bihar’s Samastipur city, hundreds of voters lined up at a polling station that opened at 7 a.m. amid tight security arrangements. Voters said they were concerned about rising food prices, lack of employment, and economic development in the state.

Most polls predict a win for Modi and his BJP, which is up against a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.

The staggered election will run until June 1, and nearly 970 million voters, more than 10 per cent of the world’s population, will elect 543 members to the Lower House of Parliament for five years. The votes are scheduled to be counted on June 4.

While Modi began his campaign with a focus on India’s development in his 10 years in power, he has since doubled down on the BJP’s Hindu nationalism pitch in recent weeks.

In campaign rallies, Modi has called Muslims “infiltrators” and accused the main opposition Congress Party of scheming to redistribute wealth from the country’s Hindus to Muslims, who comprise 14 per cent of the country’s more than 1.4 billion people.

Nikhilesh Mishra, a 42-year-old bank employee in Samastipur, said: “Raking up issues of Hindus versus Muslims will take us nowhere.”

He said Modi’s BJP-led alliance in Bihar, which secured an overwhelming majority in the 2019 election, had failed to bring development to the state, which is among the poorest in India.

Mishra said rising inflation and unemployment are driving young people to migrate to other states, draining it of its talent. “We want development. ... This time, we want change in the government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Modi appeared confident of BJP’s chances in Bihar, telling the New Delhi Television channel on Sunday that his alliance will fare better than it did in the 2019 elections, when it lost one seat.

“We may not even lose one this time,” he said.