Millions vote in India elections, with PM Modi’s party likely to win third term

Millions of Indians are voting Saturday in the penultimate round of a grueling national election where a combined opposition attempts to disrupt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign for a third consecutive term for himself and his Hindu nationalist party.

Many people lined up at polling stations before voting began at 7 a.m. to avoid the blazing sun later in the day, at the height of the Indian summer. The temperature soared to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in the afternoon in the Indian capital.

Lakshmi Bansal, a housewife, said that when the weather is hot, people usually go out for shopping and even attend festivals in such heat.

“This (election) is also like a festival, so I have no problem voting in the heat,” Bansal said.

Saturday’s poll in 58 constituencies, including seven in New Delhi, will win 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 4.

President Droupadi 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 top elected official in Indian-controlled Kashmir, staged a protest with her supporters on Saturday, saying many members of her party had been detained by police to prevent them from voting. Mufti, leader of the People’s Democratic Party which is contesting the parliamentary elections in Anantnag-Rajouri district, said she had complained to election officials.

In West Bengal state, workers belonging to the All India Trinamool Congress party blocked the car of Agnimitra Paul, one of the candidates of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, as she prepared to vote in the constituency of Medinipur. The two parties are rivals within the state and their workers often clash in the streets.

The 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 retain power for a third term, after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.

Lower than expected turnout in the previous five rounds appears to have left both camps uncertain about the outcome of the elections.

Election authorities said they were taking steps to ensure voters’ comfort, such as installing fans and tents and providing clean 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 has been involved in a highly acrimonious and slanderous campaign with the opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that produced three prime ministers.

“When the elections started, it was like a one-horse race, with Modi leading. But now we are seeing a change of sorts,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai. “The opposition is doing better than expected and it seems that Modi’s party is shaken. This is why we see Modi intensifying his anti-Muslim rhetoric to polarize voters.”

Kidwai said the opposition had defied Modi by centering its campaign rhetoric on social justice and rising unemployment, making the fight tighter than expected.

Modi ran his campaign like a presidential race, a referendum on his 10 years of rule. It claimed to help the poorest through charity, free health care, providing toilets in their homes and helping women obtain free or cheap bottles of cooking gas.

But he changed course after low voter turnout in the first round of the election and began stoking Hindu nationalism by accusing the Congress party of pandering to the votes of Muslim minorities.

Hindus make up 80% and Muslims nearly 14% of India’s population of more than 1.4 billion.

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, or more than 10% of the world’s population, were eligible to elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years.

The relative apathy of voters surprised some political analysts. During the five rounds of voting, the participation rate was between 62.2% and 69.16%, an average of 65.9%. For comparison, India’s 2019 national elections 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 dedicated to the much-revered Lord Rama, his massive roadshows and large 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 nearly 55 years after India gained independence from British colonialists in 1947.

Before the elections, the opposition INDIA alliance was seen bickering, but it has held firm ever since, especially after two chief ministers of two opposition-controlled states were sent to jail on corruption charges . Both deny the accusations.

One of them – New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – has since been released on bail and returned to campaigning.

In March, Gandhi traveled 6,713 kilometers across the country, starting in the violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur, to raise awareness among voters about issues of poverty, unemployment and democracy.

“This march helped Gandhi reinforce his image as a serious politician among voters, and that helps the opposition,” said Kidwai, the political analyst.