India Elections 2024: Millions to cast vote as world’s largest election kicks off
Nearly a billion voters will decide if Narendra Modi gets a third term as prime minister
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The first phase of the mammoth general elections in India began on Friday morning with voters queuing up at polling booths in 102 constituencies across 21 states.
At least 969 million registered voters – 471 million of them women – are expected to cast their ballots in seven phases of voting spread over 44 days. The votes will be counted and the results announced on 4 June.
Polling started at 7am (0130 GMT) and will continue until 6pm.
Voters began lining up outside polling stations much before they opened amid tight security, including senior citizens who needed help to reach the booths.
By 11 am, over 24.5 per cent of the voters had cast their ballots.
At JKP PG College in Muzaffarnagar in northern Uttar Pradesh state, Salma, 36, had just cast her vote and was waiting for her family to join. She told The Independent that at least 30 members from her family were voting today.
“The main issue is unemployment,” said Ms Salma, who doesn’t use a second name. “We need work. What else does a poor person need?”
She was also worried about inflation and hoped the government would take care of people like her.
Gulzar Ahmed, 70, said he wanted medicines at his hospital. ”I am a heart patient. Whenever I go to the local hospital, there is always a dearth of medicine. I am out voting today as I want to make sure the hospitals are well equipped.”
All shops in Muzaffarnagar were closed and traffic was minimal as the government had declared voting day a public holiday.
Another Muzaffarnagar voter, Mohammad Ikram, accused the Indian government of dividing Hindus and Muslims.
Recalling the sectarian violence that killed dozens in the region in 2013, Mr Ikram asked: "Did the government even try and arrange any community rapprochement between Hindus and Muslims?"
"There is development, sure, but only in Hindu areas of Muzaffarnagar. Look at the streets and nooks in Muslim areas and you will get the idea. Look at Khalapur, Rehmat Nagar, Jaima Nagar, Mimlana Road, Shahabuddin Road.”
“Development should be for every community. Not just one," Mr Ikram added.
He also spoke about the bigotry he had seen on social media against Muslims in recent years.
"When you beat up Muslims for praying, when you cover up mosques and demolish homes of Muslims, what kind of development is that?" he asked.
Anil Singh Thakur, 66, from Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh said the state government – also run by the BJP – had done enough work to warrant another chance.
“Earlier Muzaffarnagar was known to be a crime belt. No relatives from other states would visit us. Now there is nothing of that sort. Crime has gone down.”
Thakur, a former village leader, said corruption still needed to be weeded out.
The elections are meant to choose 543 members of the lower house of parliament, called the Lok Sabha. The party or coalition that secures a simple majority will appoint the prime minister and form the next government.
Among the prominent leaders who cast their votes on Friday were former finance minister P Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma and Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma.
Narendra Modi, 73, is seeking a third consecutive term as prime minister against an alliance of opposition parties led by the Congress.
Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies are hoping to maintain their hold on power for five more years.
Such a prospect has sparked concern among scholars and analysts who argue that Mr Modi’s return to power will further entrench the country’s status as an “electoral autocracy”.
Mukesh Kumar, 63, a local hotelier standing in a queue to vote in Muzaffarnagar, did not seem to share these concerns. “Look at the crime rate. It has gone down. Look at roads, gas prices,” he said.
At the MPL Girls Inter College on Roorkee Road, a senior couple had just walked out after casting their votes. Vipin Kumar, 63 and Kavita Bhatla, 58, were beaming. Their son and daughter-in-law were on their way from Delhi to cast their ballots in their hometown.
"I want peace and development for the country," Ms Bhatla said. She claimed India was now being “acknowledged as a power to reckon with" on the international stage.
At St Mary Public School down the Roorkee Road, Ravi Pal, 32, sat with his friends outside a polling booth. He was disgruntled. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Shri Venkateshwara University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, in 2018, but didn’t find a job.
"All governments make roads and install street lights. What about unemployment? Has the government made sure the youth find employment? All my friends are unemployed despite having degrees from government-run colleges," Mr Pal complained.
He said that his areas didn’t even have basic services like trash collection from streets until three months ago. "Only when the elections came near did they start cleaning."
Lakshmi, 40, a daily wage worker who goes by her first name alone, was frustrated with the rising cost of living. Only the rich had benefited, she complained. "Look at the price of flour, dal. Life for the poor is tough. What can a poor person do?"
As many as 18 million Indians will vote for the first time in the ongoing elections. They include Sakshi Verma, 22, in Muzaffarnagar.
Her understanding of the politics has come from her family, she said. “I listen to my family. We voted for the same party. I see that women feel safe now, there is development.”
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal, collectively home to 475 million people, have a seven-day voting span while other states have one day to vote.
The run-up to the elections has been tense.
Just a weeks before, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister and a prominent rival of Modi, was arrested on corruption charges, while Hemant Soren, another Modi critic and former chief minister of Jharkhand, was detained in connection with a land scam.
Both leaders deny any wrongdoing.
Through such moves, critics say, the BJP has weakened the opposition in the country and crippled its ability to challenge the ruling party.
The ruling party is also accused of monopolising the media space and mostly enjoys positive coverage.
On top of that, the BJP claims the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to the conflict-ridden erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir – was a massive win.
Then, the inauguration of a grand Hindu temple built on the demolished ruins of an ancient mosque in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh was presented as another feather in “Hindu-first” BJP’s hat. This is expected to favour Modi in the polls.
Meanwhile, about 15 million polling officials and security personnel will supervise the operation of 5.5 million electronic voting machines deployed across more than a million polling stations nationwide.
The elections – often called the “festival of democracy” by some media houses – involve thousands of candidates representing over 2,400 political parties. In the 2019 election, there were upwards of 8,000 candidates vying for the 543 seats.
India’s electoral process ranks among the costliest globally, with parties and candidates shelling out an estimated $8.7bn (£7bn) in 2019 to woo over 900 million eligible voters.
Modi has positioned himself as not only a formidable leader in India but a global statesman. At one point in time, however, he was persona non grata in the US and the UK.
In March 2005, the US refused him a diplomatic visa and revoked his visa due to suspected involvement – or rather, his lack of action – in the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, where he was then the chief minister.
Now, though, Modi enjoys US president Joe Biden’s support. Biden welcomed Modi for a state visit last year, aiming to strengthen his ties with the leader of a nation of 1.4 billion people and one of the fastest-growing economies.
The second phase of elections is on 26 April. Third, fourth, fifth and sixth phases are on 7, 13, 20, 25 May, and the final phase on 1 June.
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