Updates from Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Phase 1 Voting

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Phase 1 Voting Updates | As it Happened on April 19

Polls opened Friday in the first and largest phase of India’s marathon election, in which populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to secure a rare third consecutive term and deepen his historic transformation of the world’s most populous nation.

About 969 million people are eligible to vote in the biggest democratic exercise in human history, with polling taking place in seven phases over the next six weeks. Votes will be counted on June 4.

It is considered among the most consequential votes in decades, with Modi’s powerful right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking an outright majority in the lower house of parliament, or Lok Sabha.

An emphatic win for the BJP would give the party a mandate to further enshrine its Hindu-nationalist agenda, pulling away from India’s secular foundation toward majoritarian rule.

Opposing the BJP juggernaut is an alliance of more than two dozen parties, including India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, which are campaigning to reduce inequality and uphold what they say are India’s at-risk democratic institutions.

Throughout its decade in power, the BJP has come under scrutiny from rights groups for its increasingly strident brand of Hindu nationalist politics and an ongoing crackdown on dissent and democratic freedoms.

Yet Modi and his party have been buoyed by levels of popularity not seen in decades. According to 2023 Pew research, about eight-in-ten Indian adults have a favorable view of the prime minister.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has overseen massive infrastructure spending, building highways, power plants and maritime projects, as well as subsidizing the construction of millions of concrete homes for improvised families.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters are attending a rally by Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of the northeastern state of Assam (not pictured), for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Nagaon District, Assam, India, on April 4, 2024. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

RELATED ARTICLE

Billions spent, jungle-trekking poll workers and voting at 15,000 feet. What to know about the world’s biggest election

“The BJP has developed the country significantly in the past ten years. Corruption and crime has decreased drastically. What more can we ask for?” Aditya Garg, 29, told CNN from a voting station in Muzaffarnagar, in Uttar Pradesh.

Under Modi’s leadership, the country of 1.4 billion people has become the world’s fastest-growing major economy and a modern global power.

Despite these successes, soaring youth unemployment and inequality remain stubbornly persistent problems, particularly in rural areas, and critics say Modi has driven religious polarization, which has included rising Islamophobia and persecution of the country’s 230 million Muslims.

Modi has walked a fine line geopolitically, placing India as a crucial counterpoint between global powers, and the Unites States, Russia and China will be watching the election closely.

As polls opened Friday, the leader had a message for voters.

“I urge all those voting in these seats to exercise their franchise in record numbers,” he wrote on X.

What is Modi promising?

Modi has set an ambitious target to secure a 400-seat supermajority, with 370 directly controlled by his BJP – up from 303 in 2019 – and the others from its National Democratic Alliance.

The BJP’s campaign manifesto centers on job creation and anti-poverty and development programs, with particular focus on women, the poor, young people and farmers.

Modi wants to turn India into a global manufacturing hub, continue its massive infrastructure transformation, and achieve energy independence by 2047.

Worth $3.7 trillion in 2023, India is the world’s fifth largest economy, having jumped four spots in the rankings during his decade in office. Modi has pledged that India will have the world’s third largest economy during a possible third term.

Indian prime minister and leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Narendra Modi waves to supporters at an election campaign event in Guwahati on April 16, 2024.

Indian prime minister and leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Narendra Modi waves to supporters at an election campaign event in Guwahati on April 16, 2024

However, economic successes have been slow to trickle down to the country’s poorest and India’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person is ranked a lowly 147 in 2022, according to the World Bank.

“Everything has become so expensive; how can poor people survive in this climate? I think it’s time for a change,” said Irafan Mohammad, a Muzaffarnagar rickshaw driver, who has four children and earns $6 a day.

Modi wants India to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, will push to bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics and aims to land an astronaut on the moon, and has pledged to transform the country into a developed nation by 2047.