NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians began voting Friday in the second round of multi-phase national elections as prime minister Narendra Modi tried to galvanize voters with his assertive brand of Hindu nationalist politics.
People lined up outside polling stations when voting opened at 7am. Attendance was expected to increase as the day progressed.
The outcome of Friday’s vote will be crucial for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as the 88 constituencies up for grabs in 13 states include some of its strongholds in states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Most polls predict a victory for Modi and the BJP, which will face a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi is running for the second time in the Wayanad constituency in the southern state of Kerala, after being defeated by Smriti Irani, a BJP leader, in the 2019 elections in the northern Indian city of Amethi – a traditional stronghold for the Nehru family -Gandhi.
Other prominent candidates in the second phase of voting include Congress Party’s Shashi Tharoor, popular BJP Bollywood star Hema Malini and actor Arun Govil, who played the role of Hinduism’s revered Lord Ram in a 1987 television adaptation of the ancient epic Ramayana.
Prime Minister Modi called on people to vote in record numbers to strengthen democracy.
“I especially call on our young voters and women voters to come out and vote in large numbers. Your voice is your voice!” Modi said in a post on social media platform X.
The BJP has already won one parliamentary seat from Surat in the state of Gujarat, where the Congress party candidate was disqualified on Monday. Election officials said they found discrepancies in the signatures on the nomination and other candidates withdrew from the contest, leaving BJP nominee Mukesh Dalal as the winner by default.
Nearly 970 million voters – more than 10% of the world’s population – will elect 543 members to the lower house of parliament over five years in staggered elections that run until June 1. The votes will be counted on June 4. a total of 28 states in India.
Turnout in the first phase of elections on April 19 was estimated at around 62% of the 166.3 million eligible voters. About 160 million people are eligible to vote in the second phase.
In comparison, India’s 2019 national elections recorded the highest ever turnout – 67.11% – in the history of Indian parliamentary elections. Turnout is expected to rise for another five rounds of voting.
The relative apathy of voters has surprised some political analysts, but they say the BJP remains a frontrunner.
“You could say that the lethargy is the result of a foregone conclusion,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian political scientist.
“But for Modi’s party, which expects to win 400 of the 543 seats, the joyful wave is missing,” he said in an article in the Indian Express daily.
Critics of the prime minister, an outspoken Hindu nationalist, say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has been under attack since the BPJ came to power a decade ago. They accuse the party of promoting religious intolerance and sometimes even violence. The party denies the accusation and says its policies benefit all Indians.
Modi sparked a huge controversy this weekend when he said the Congress party, if voted to power, would distribute the country’s wealth to “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”, in an apparent reference to the Muslim community.
Hindus make up 80% of India’s 1.4 billion population, while Muslims account for 14% and Christians and Sikhs 2% each.
Congress party leaders met with election officials and urged them to investigate whether Modi’s comments violated the body’s code of conduct that bars politicians from appealing to voters based on caste and religious sentiments .
The BJP also filed a complaint against Congress’ Gandhi, accusing the opposition leader of falsely claiming that poverty was increasing and driving a wedge between India’s north and south on the basis of language and region in order to change the electoral environment to disrupt.
The election authority acknowledged the complaints on Thursday and asked the chairmen of the two parties to submit their responses by Monday. The authority is expected to make a ruling next week.
