Final round of India’s elections

INDIANS were voting in the last phase of the country’s mammoth polls yesterday, including for the seat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces a tough challenge from the opposition.

More than 100 million voters were eligible to vote across seven states and a federally administered territory in yesterday’s round of polling to elect 59 MPs to the 545-member parliament.

Modi’s constituency of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state is among the constituencies where voting is taking place. On the national level, Modi’s BJP is battling it out with the main opposition Congress party as well as powerful, smaller parties. Pollsters say the BJP is expected to return to power but with a reduced tally.

The elections are being seen as a referendum on Modi, whose party swept to power with a resounding majority in the last elections.

The Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi, is expected to do better than the 44 seats it secured in 2014, its lowest ever result. In Uttar Pradesh, a political heavyweight in which the BJP won 71 out of the 80 parliamentary constituencies in the last elections, an alliance of two opposition parties is expected to claw back a number of seats from the Hindu nationalist party.

A 102-year-old man, Shyam Saran Negi, who was independent India’s first voter, cast his ballot in Himachal Pradesh yesterday for the 17th time.

The polls have been by and large peaceful, except for a series of clashes among political workers in West Bengal state. Left-wing Maoist rebels have also carried out a few attacks.

Counting for all seven phases is scheduled for Thursday and the results are expected on Friday.