NEW DELHI — Millions of Indians began voting on Friday in the second round of multi-phase national elections, as polarization grows with Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraging an assertive brand of Hindu nationalist politics in his campaign.
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 in 88 constituencies across 13 states with 160 million voters will be crucial for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as it includes 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 faces a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi is running in the Wayanad constituency in the southern state of Kerala for the second time after being defeated in the 2019 elections by Smriti Irani, a BJP leader, in the city from Amethi in northern India – a traditional stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Other key leaders in the second phase of voting include the Congress Party’s Shashi Tharoor and the BJP’s popular Bollywood star Hema Malini, and actor Arun Govil, who played the role of the Hindus’ most revered Lord Ram in a 1987 television adaptation from the ancient epic Ramayana.
The BJP has already won one parliamentary seat in Surat in the state of Gujarat, where the Congress party’s candidate was disqualified on Monday. Election officials said they found discrepancies in the nomination’s signatures and other candidates were dropped from the race, leaving the BJP nominee as the winner.
Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years during staggered elections running until June 1. from 28 states of India.
Turnout in the first phase of elections on April 19 was estimated at around 62% of the 166.3 million eligible voters.
In comparison, the 2019 national elections in India recorded the highest-ever voter turnout – 67.11% – in the history of Indian parliamentary elections. Participation is expected to increase in another five rounds of voting.
Voter apathy surprised some political analysts, but they say the BJP remains the favorite.
“We could argue that indifference is a consequence of a hasty conclusion,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian academic.
“But for Modi’s party, which hopes to win 400 of the 543 seats, the joyful momentum is missing,” he said in an article in the daily Indian Express.
Modi sparked huge controversy over the weekend when he said that the Congress Party, if voted to power, would distribute the country’s wealth between “insiders” and “those who have the most children”, in an apparent reference to the Muslim community.
Hindus represent 80% of India’s 1.4 billion inhabitants, Muslims 14% and Christians and Sikhs 2% each.
Congress party leaders met election officials and urged them to investigate whether Modi’s comments violated the body’s code of conduct that prohibits politicians from appealing to voters on the basis of religious and caste sentiments.
The BJP also filed a complaint against Congress party leader Gandhi. He accused Gandhi of falsely claiming an increase in poverty in the country and of creating a divide between North and South India based on language and region, with the aim of disrupting the electoral environment.
The electoral authority acknowledged the complaints on Thursday and asked the presidents of both parties to submit their responses by Monday. The authority is expected to give its decision next week.
Critics of the prime minister – an avowed Hindu nationalist – say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has come under attack since his Bharatiya Janata Party won power a decade ago. They accuse the party of fomenting religious intolerance and, at times, even violence. The party denies the accusation and claims that its policies benefit all Indians.
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