Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

World’s biggest election tests Modi’s grip on power

1188238
1188238
minus
plus

New Delhi: Tens of millions of Indians joined nationwide queues on Thursday to give their verdict on prime minister Narendra Modi as the world’s biggest election started amid deadly clashes.


Election officials reported a heavy turnout across the 20 states taking part in the first day of the massive exercise which involves 900 million eligible voters and will take nearly six weeks to complete.


While the 68-year-old Modi remains popular because of his tough stance on national security, he is under pressure over unemployment and controversial economic measures.


Insults and fake news have surged on social media in the run-up to the poll as Modi’s Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress party stake their claims.


On the ground, security forces were on high alert and two members of regional parties were killed in clashes outside a polling station in Tadipatri, Andhra Pradesh state, media reports said. After five people including a local lawmaker were killed by a roadside bomb planted by suspected Maoist rebels on Tuesday, the insurgents were blamed for two voting day blasts in Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra states.


Tens of thousands of armed police, paramilitaries and troops guarded polling stations in Jammu and Kashmir. Thousands of parties and candidates are running for office in the seven separate days of voting in 543 constituencies up to May 19. Final results will be released on May 23.


Some 1.1 million electronic voting machines are being taken around the country for the votes, with some transported through jungles and carried up mountains, including to a hamlet near the Chinese border with just one voter. About 142 million people were eligible for the first of voting.


Polling stations in northeastern states like Arunachal Pradesh bordering China were the first to open, followed by parts of Bihar in the north. In Assam in the northeast, queues started forming well before voting began, including many of the 84 million first-time voters who could play a decisive role in the outcome.


Modi appealed in an early-morning tweet to his 46.8 million followers to “turn out in record numbers.


He swept to power in 2014 with the biggest landslide in 30 years.


Critics, however, accuse him of imposing a Hindu agenda, emboldening attacks on Muslims and low-caste Dalits, re-writing school textbooks and re-naming cities.


Modi has simplified the tax code and made doing business easier, but some promises have fallen short. Thousands of indebted farmers have committed suicide 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.


Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party and the latest member of his family dynasty hoping to become prime minister, accused Modi of causing a “national disaster”.


His party won three key state elections in December but India’s showdown with Pakistan in February has give Modi’s standing a boost.


Playing to its Hindu base, the BJP has committed to building a grand temple in place of a mosque demolished by Hindu mobs in the northern city of Ayodhya in 1992.


India’s latest military altercation with Pakistan in February has allowed Modi to portray himself as the nation’s “chowkidar” (“watchman”). The few opinion polls have given him the advantage but they are notoriously unreliable in India and much will depend on the BJP’s performance in key states such as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.


“It’s difficult to predict,” said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a veteran journalist and political commentator.


— AFP


World’s smallest woman casts vote


Nagpur: Heads turned when the world’s tiniest woman, actress and Guinness World Record holder Jyoti Amge -- who stands just 63 cm tall -- turned up to vote at a polling station in Nagpur on Thursday.


Sporting a red-and-checks sleeveless dress, the 25-year-old woman at 2 feet, 1 inch, patiently stood in the queue and exercised her franchise. “I request all people to vote. Please vote first and then go to complete all your other works,” Amge told the media as she displayed her marked finger. Amge, a celeb cook and entrepreneur, has appeared in Bigg Boss 6, acted in American and Italian tele-vision series and has her own statue in the Celebrity Wax Museum, Lonavala (Pune). — IANS


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon