India’s BJP under Modi looks set for a comfortable win

With reference to “Prolonged vote likely to lift Modi’s chances” (March 22), I would like to point out that in 2014, under the watch of the prime minister at the time, Manmohan Singh of the now-opposition Congress party, the election was conducted in nine phases, so a favourite opposition charge of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi manipulating the Election Commission to spread the elections out in multiple phases – seven this time – does not hold much water.

The report says “observers believe” the election will be “a close fight for the BJP” and proceeds to quote a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

However, a poll by India Today between December 15 and January 28 found the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies could win 335 of the 543 directly elected seats in the lower house of parliament. An India TV-CNX poll conducted from February 5 to February 23 showed the BJP poised to win 335 seats on its own, more than the 303 it won in 2019, and 378 with its allies. And according to the News 18 Mega Poll conducted from February 12 to March 1, the alliance could win 411 seats.

These polls, conducted by media organisations from the centre-right to centre-left of the political spectrum, are unanimous in predicting a miserable seat tally for the Congress party, with two out of three predicting a worse tally than before.

Granted that from now until the election begins, things may change completely, but as of now the BJP under Modi seems even more formidable than before.

Dipak Kumar, Hung Hom