India voted in the second phase of the world’s biggest election as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his challengers heated up the campaign by focusing on hot-button issues such as religious discrimination, affirmative action and taxes.
Nearly a billion people are eligible to vote in the seven-phase general elections that began on April 19 and end on June 1. The counting of votes is scheduled for June 4th.
A total of 88 of the 543 seats in the lower house of parliament went to the polls on Friday, with 160 million people eligible to vote in 13 states and federal territories.
Modi is seeking a record-breaking third consecutive term in office based on his economic record, social policies, national pride, Hindu nationalism and personal popularity.
His challengers have formed an alliance of more than two dozen parties, promising greater affirmative action, more handouts and an end to what they call Modi’s autocratic rule.
Southern states in focus
More than half of the seats in Friday’s contests were in the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka and the western state of Rajasthan.
Kerala is the only major Indian state where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has never won a parliamentary seat, although its voter support has steadily increased from 1.75 percent in 1984 to 13 percent in 2019.
In February, Modi said the state gave the BJP a “double-digit vote share” in 2019. “This time the party would win double digit seats from Kerala,” he said at an election rally.
But there is little evidence that the BJP has one in a state dominated for decades by two coalitions – the United Democratic Front (UDF), led by the Congress party, and the communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). Support is currently in power in the state.
Modi’s main opponent, Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress, is seeking re-election from Wayanad in Kerala.
“This election is not a regular election… because for the first time in the history of India, one party and one person is trying to complete the constitution and democracy of India,” Gandhi said at an election rally in a region of neighboring Karnataka.
The election campaign has become more heated since the first phase of voting on April 19 as Modi and the Congress face off on communal issues. The prime minister accuses the opposition party of favoring minority Muslims, watering down affirmative action and imposing an inheritance tax.
The Congress has rejected the allegations, saying Modi is afraid of defeat and is using divisive language to distract voters from real problems such as unemployment, price rise and rural distress.
Kailash Adhikari, managing director of Governance Now magazine, told Al Jazeera he did not believe the BJP was creating a “divide based on any religion”.
“From the prime minister to the home minister, they have said that India is for Hindus as much as it is for any other community, be it Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Christians or others,” he said.
“We must also understand that the kind of victory we saw in 2014 and 2019 cannot only come from a certain majority [group].”
Heat wave hits voters
The Electoral Commission and political parties were concerned that unusually hot weather and weddings in some parts of the country affected voter turnout.
Voter turnout in the first round last week fell almost four points to 66 percent compared to the previous election in 2019, with experts speculating that warmer-than-average temperatures were to blame.
Shortly before polls opened on Friday, Modi took to social media to urge voters to turn out “record numbers” despite the heat.
“High voter turnout strengthens our democracy,” he wrote on the social media platform X. “Your vote is your vote!”
The second round of the survey – which will be conducted in phases to ease the immense logistical burden of an election in the world’s most populous country – includes counties that experienced temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week.
The India Meteorological Department said on Thursday that severe heatwaves would prevail in several states until the weekend. That includes parts of the eastern state of Bihar, where voting took place in five districts on Friday and where temperatures this week were more than 5.1°C (9.2°F) above the seasonal average.
Karnataka in the south and parts of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and heartland of the Hindu faith, are also expected to vote despite the heatwave.
“The turnout that we normally expect in the early hours of the morning is quite low this time,” pollster Shyam Sundar Bharti told AFP in Mathura, a city not far from the Taj Mahal where temperatures hit 41C (106C). °F) were expected.
“The heat is the reason,” he said.