Millions of Indians will vote on Saturday in the penultimate round of a grueling national election, as a combined opposition seeks to derail Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign for a third consecutive term for him and his Hindu nationalist party.
Many people lined up at polling stations before voting began at 7am to avoid the scorching sun at the end of the day at the height of Indian summer. The temperature rose to 43 Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in the afternoon in the Indian capital.
Lakshmi Bansal, a housewife, said that while the weather was hot, people usually went out for shopping and even attended festivals in such heat.
“This (election) is also like a festival, so I have no problem voting in the heat,” Bansal said.
Saturday’s vote in 58 constituencies, including seven in New Delhi, will complete voting for 89.5% of the 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament.
Voting for the remaining 57 seats on June 1 will conclude a six-week election. Votes will be counted on June 4th.
President Draupadi Murmu and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar were among the early voters. Opposition Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi also voted in New Delhi.
Mehbooba Mufti, a former elected official from Indian-controlled Kashmir, held a protest with her supporters on Saturday, alleging that many of her party workers were detained by police to prevent them from voting. Mufti, head of the People’s Democratic Party contesting the parliamentary elections in Anantnag-Rajouri district, said she had complained to election officials.
In the state of West Bengal, workers belonging to the All India Trinamool Congress party blocked the car of Agnimitra Paul, one of the candidates from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, while she was voting in the Medinipur constituency. The two parties are rivals in the state and their workers frequently face each other in the streets.
This election is considered one of the most important in Indian history and will test Modi’s political dominance. If Modi wins, he will be only the second Indian leader to hold power for a third term, after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
A lower-than-expected voter turnout in the previous five rounds appears to have left both sides in doubt about the outcome of the elections.
Election authorities said they are taking measures to ensure voters’ comfort, such as setting up fans and tents and providing drinking water.
Most polls predict a victory for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which faces a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.
Modi was involved in a highly bitter and defamatory campaign with the opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that produced three prime ministers.
“When the polls started, it looked like a horse race, with Modi leading from the front. But now we are seeing some kind of change,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai. “The opposition is doing better than expected and it looks like Modi’s party is shaky. That’s why we see Modi intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric to polarize voters.”
Kidwai said the opposition challenged Modi by focusing its campaign narrative on social justice and rising unemployment, making the contest tighter than expected.
Modi ran his campaign like a presidential race, a referendum on his 10 years of rule. He claimed to help the poorest with charity, free healthcare, providing toilets in their homes and helping women get free or cheap cooking gas cylinders.
But he changed tack after poor voter turnout in the first round of elections and began whipping up Hindu nationalism by accusing the Congress party of favoring the Muslim minority in search of votes.
Hindus represent 80%, and Muslims, almost 14%, of India’s more than 1.4 billion inhabitants.
Manish Bhatia, a voter from New Delhi, said “politics based on caste and religion is dangerous for the country”, adding that voting should be based on the performance of candidates.
Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — were eligible to elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament over five years.
The relative apathy of voters surprised some political analysts. In the five rounds of voting, voter turnout varied between 62.2% and 69.16% – with an average of 65.9%. In comparison, the 2019 national elections in India saw the highest voter turnout ever – 67.11%. Modi’s BJP won 303 seats in parliament in 2019.
Modi’s inauguration of a huge Hindu temple to the most revered Lord Rama, his huge roadshows and huge public rallies have raised the BJP’s hopes of a massive surge in voter support.
The current prime minister came to power in 2014, dislodging the Congress party that ruled the country for almost 55 years after India gained independence from British colonialists in 1947.
Before the elections, the INDIA opposition alliance was seen in disputes, but has since remained united, especially after two chief ministers of two opposition-controlled states were arrested on corruption charges. Both deny the accusations.
One of them – New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – was released on bail and returned to campaigning.
In March, Gandhi completed a 6,713-kilometer (4,171-mile) walk across the country, starting in the violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur, to raise awareness among voters about issues of poverty, unemployment and democracy.
“The walk helped Gandhi reinforce his image as a serious politician among voters, and this is helping the opposition,” said Kidwai, the political analyst.
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