NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s marathon elections enter their final stages Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely expected to return to after a decade in power a third term. .
The six-week elections were seen as a referendum on Modi. If the 73-year-old wins, it will be only the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term, after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
Exit polls on Saturday by major television networks predicted a comfortable victory for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies over a broad opposition alliance led by the Congress party and its main campaign manager, Rahul Gandhi.
Indian television channels have historically had a mixed reputation for predicting election results.
Nearly 970 million people, more than 10% of the world’s population, were eligible to vote. According to official data, turnout averaged 66% across the seven phases.
The counting of votes at counting centers in each of the 543 constituencies where polls were held could continue until the evening before the Election Commission of India announces a final result.
But leads are more likely to come forward and indicate where the results can go.
In his ten years in power, Modi transformed India’s political landscape. His popularity has surpassed that of his party and has made the parliamentary elections increasingly resemble a presidential-style campaign. The result is that the BJP is increasingly reliant on Modi’s enduring brand to stay in power, with local politicians fading into the background even in state elections.
“Modi was not just the main campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar.
His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who improved India’s standing in the world, and credit his pro-business policies with making the economy the fifth largest in the world.
But a decade of his leadership has also left the country deeply divided. Modi’s critics and opponents say his “Hindu-first” policies have spawned intolerance, hate speech and brutal attacks against the country’s minorities, especially Muslims, who make up 14% of the population.
The Indian economy, one of the fastest growing, has become more unequal under Modi. As stock markets reach record highs and the number of millionaires increases, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefiting from the economic boom.
The country’s democracy, Modi’s critics say, is faltering under his government, which has increasingly employed strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, pressure independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and says democracy is flourishing.
When polls opened in mid-April, a confident BJP initially focused its campaign on “Modi’s guarantees,” emphasizing the economic and prosperity outcomes that his party says have reduced poverty. With him at the helm, “India will become a developed nation by 2047,” Modi reiterated at rally after rally.
But the campaign became increasingly strident as Modi stepped up polarizing rhetoric targeting the Muslim minority, a tactic that would energize his core Hindu majority voters.
His opposition, the Congress Party-led INDIA Alliance, has attacked Modi for his Hindu nationalist politics. It hopes to capitalize on simmering economic discontent, and its campaign has focused on issues such as unemployment, inflation and inequality.
But the broad alliance of more than a dozen political parties has been beset by ideological disagreements and defections, raising questions about its effectiveness. Meanwhile, the alliance has also claimed they are being unfairly targeted, pointing to a series of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against their leaders by federal agencies that they say are politically motivated. The government has denied this.
Another victory would cement Modi as one of the country’s most popular and important leaders. It would follow a landslide victory in 2019, when the BJP won 303 of the 543 seats in Parliament.
