NEW DELHI, April 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – India’s gargantuan election, the
biggest in history, kicked off on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi
seeking a second term from the South Asian behemoth’s 900 million voters.
Opinion polls put Modi, 68, as the favourite but he faces a tough challenge
from not one but two scions of India’s storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty
attempting to capitalise on his poor record on jobs and rural poverty.
Because of the vastness of India, the election will be held in seven
phases, from the tea plantations of Darjeeling to the slums of Mumbai to the
tropical Andaman Islands, and everywhere in between.
Security forces were on high alert due to the perennial danger of violence
at election time, with five people including a local lawmaker killed in an
ambush by suspected Maoist rebels this week.
Thousands of parties and candidates will run for office between now and May
19 in 543 constituencies across the nation of 1.3 billion people, with
results not due until May 23.
Some of the 1.1 million electronic voting machines will be transported
through jungles and carried up mountains, including to a hamlet near the
Chinese border with just one voter.
Phase one on Thursday saw some 142 million people — including 7,764
transgender voters, eligible to register as such for the first time — able
to cast ballots.
Polling stations in the northeast were among the first to open at 7:00 am
(0130 GMT) with others elsewhere set to follow at 8:00 am.
“I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase
today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise,” Modi said
in a tweet just after voting began.
“I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers,” he
said.
– Good days –
Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014
with their famous promise of “achhe din” (“good days”), becoming the first
party to win an absolute majority in 30 years.
Critics say the BJP has since sought to impose a Hindu agenda on India,
emboldening attacks on Muslims and low-caste Dalits trading in beef — cows
being holy for Hindus — and re-writing school textbooks.
Modi has simplified the tax code and made doing business easier but some of
his promises have fallen short, particularly in rural areas where thousands
of indebted farmers have killed themselves in recent years.
Growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy has been too slow to provide jobs
for the roughly one million Indians entering the labour market each month,
and unemployment is reportedly at its highest since the 1970s.
Rahul Gandhi, 48, hoping to become the latest prime minister from his
dynasty — and aided by sister Priyanka — has accused Modi of causing a
“national disaster”.
Gandhi’s Congress party has profited from voter dissatisfaction, winning in
December three key state elections, chipping into Modi’s core support base in
the Hindi-speaking heartland of northern India.
– ‘Empty suit’ –
Gandhi, the great-grandson, grandson and son of three past premiers, has
grown in stature since being derided in leaked US diplomatic cables in 2007
as an “empty suit”.
Election adverts show him hugging an emaciated peasant woman, while
Congress’s leftist manifesto pledges to end abject poverty by 2030 and give
cash transfers to 50 million families.
But Modi and the BJP’s formidable campaign juggernaut — backed by a savvy
social media army — will be no pushover, promising a $1.4-trillion
infrastructure blitz.
Playing to its Hindu base, the BJP has also committed to building a grand
temple in place of a Muslim mosque demolished by Hindu mobs in the northern
city of Ayodhya in 1992.
But most importantly, India’s latest military altercation with arch-rival
Pakistan in February has allowed Modi to portray himself as the “chowkidar”
(“watchman”) protecting mother India.
“Nationalism is our inspiration and inclusion and good governance is our
mantra,” Modi, whose stern bearded face stares out from ubiquitous posters,
said at the launch of his manifesto.
But opinion polls are notoriously unreliable in India and much will depend
on the BJP’s performance in several key states, in particular Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal.
“It’s difficult to predict,” said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a veteran
journalist and political commentator.
“It reminds me of 2004 when (premier Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and the BJP lost
when everyone expected them to win,” he told AFP.