Modi unveils election policies as he eyes third term as India’s leader

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to make his country into a global manufacturing hub, as companies shift away from China, and spend more on the poorest people as he unveiled his party’s election strategy.

He hopes to return to power for a third five-year term as leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

India holds its elections on different days in different parts of the country, stretching over weeks.

Voting for the country’s parliament will begin on April 19 and run until June 1, and results will be announced on June 4.

Most polls have predicted a victory for Mr Modi and the BJP.

But the opposition Congress Party argues that Mr Modi has undermined India’s democracy and favoured the interests of the rich.

He promised to expand social programmes introduced during his party’s 10-year rule, including millions of free homes for the poor, along with healthcare, cooking gas and free grain. His government has been paying 6,000 rupees (£57) a year to poor farmers.

India is the world’s most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people and Mr Modi said his government’s policies have pulled 250 million people out of poverty since he came to power in 2014. He has been campaigning extensively across the country, promising to expand India’s economy to the equivalent of $5 trillion by 2027 from around $3,7 trillion.

He also promised to put India on track to become a developed country by 2047, when the country celebrates 100 years of independence from British colonialists.

Yesterday, he said his party would develop India as a hub for the pharmaceutical, energy, semiconductor and tourism industries and will modernise its infrastructure, including its railways, airways, and waterways.

And he said he will seek to increase jobs for young people and access to cheap loans for young entrepreneurs.

Mr Modi is broadly popular in India, where he is considered a champion of the country’s Hindu majority and has overseen rapid economic growth.

But critics say another term for the BJP could undermine India’s status as a secular, democratic nation, saying its 10 years in power have brought attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.