Almost 1 billion Indians begin voting Friday in elections lasting more than six weeks, weighing up whether to hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third five-year term to continue his mix of economic and Hindu nationalist policies.
Voting in the world’s biggest election takes place in seven phases until June 1 to accommodate the complicated logistics involved in getting ballots to everyone in the sub-continent. Polls in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and 20 other regions will take place Friday in the first phase.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is campaigning on the prime minister’s popularity, the strength of India’s economy and a pro-Hindu agenda that has resonated with the country’s majority. The opposition, a coalition of parties led by the Indian National Congress, is arguing that Modi has eroded India’s democratic institutions and paid insufficient attention to the jobless and the poor.