INDIA’S GIANT ELECTION REACHES HALFWAY WITH A “SIGNIFICANT DIP” IN VOTER TURNOUT

Tue 07 May 2024:

There are 969 million registered voters in the world’s most populous nation, who will cast their ballots for a total of 543 seats in Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament.

This includes 18 million first-time voters and some 197 million who are in their 20s.

The size of the country’s electorate is bigger than the combined population of the 27 European Union member states.

In the 2019 election, turnout was more than 67 percent, with nearly 615 million people casting a vote.

Voting is on in the third of the seven-phase Indian election, with 11 states voting for 93 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
As of 11am local time (05:30 GMT), the eastern state of West Bengal was leading with the highest voter turnout at 32.82 percent, India’s ANI news agency reported.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav says he hopes India’s election body will take action against complaints of booth capturing by the workers of the ruling BJP, according to the India Today network.
Prime Minister Modi cast his vote in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency where his number two, Home Minister Amit Shah, is the BJP candidate.
The main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has urged citizens to come out to vote “in large numbers” to protect their rights.

Modi voted early in his home state of Gujarat as he called for a strong turnout, although he warned of the scorching summer heat.

He is seeking a rare, third straight term in a vote which pits his Hindu nationalist BJP against an alliance of more than two dozen opposition parties.

“I urge all citizens to vote in large numbers and celebrate the festival of democracy … To all those working in the heat, I urge you to take care of your health and drink adequate water,” he said shortly after voting.

How much of India has voted so far?

The first and second phases of the election have already decided the fate of 190 seats.

In the first two phases, voting concluded for all seats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south, and Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Nagaland in the northeast.

Voting is also over in the northern Uttarakhand state, the desert state of Rajasthan, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

Voting has been concluded for most of Assam’s and half of Karnataka’s seats as of phase two.

Voting in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul was moved from second to third phase due to the death of candidate Ashok Bhalavi of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

‘Not against Islam or Muslims’: Modi to TV channel

“We are not against Islam. We are not against Muslims. This is not our domain,” Modi told the broadcaster Times Now in an interview ahead of the third phase of voting.

“They [opposition] would vilify us as anti-Muslim and then would claim they are friends of Muslims. They gained through this. That is why they created this atmosphere of fear. They were reaping benefits by fearmongering. But the Muslim community is aware now,” the Indian prime minister said.

“The opposition’s problem is that their lies have been caught. That is why to mislead, they have to keep saying all kinds of lies.”

Modi asked the Muslims to “introspect”.

“The country is progressing, if your community is feeling deprived, what’s the reason for it? Why didn’t you get the benefits of government schemes when Congress was in government?” he said.

In an election rally in central India on Tuesday, he said India has reached a “turning point” in history and the people will have to decide whether “vote jihad” or “Ram Rajya” – the mythological kingdom of the Hindu god – will work in India.

“You have to decide whether ‘vote jihad’ will work in India or ‘Ram Rajya’ will.”

BJP’s ‘mask has dropped’

Modi and the ruling BJP have doubled down heavily on their Hindu nationalist platform, with the incumbent prime minister employing some of his most divisive rhetoric in his decade in power.

Modi, in numerous speeches in recent weeks, has said women’s wealth could be at risk if the opposition Congress comes to power, claiming the party would snatch away their “mangalsutra” – a sacred gold chain that indicates a Hindu woman’s marital status – and give it to its voters, a veiled reference to Muslims.

“The mask has dropped, and I think it is political compulsions that have made them do this,” said Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a political science professor at New Delhi’s Ashoka University, according to the Associated Press.

Changes in the BJP’s campaign may also be a sign of anxiety about low voter turnout that it had not anticipated, Mahmudabad said. Voter turnout in the first two phases has been slightly lower than the same rounds in the last election in 2019, according to official data.

“In recent elections, the BJP’s wins have been associated with getting the voters out [to vote],” Mahmudabad said. “There may be some fatigue, anti-incumbency or even disenchantment,” which has led the BJP to escalate their rhetoric.

‘Not an ordinary election’: Rahul Gandhi

India’s main opposition leader has urged the citizens to come out to vote “in large numbers” to protect their rights.

“Remember, this is not an ordinary election, it is an election to protect the democracy and constitution of the country,” he posted on X.

Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, but his Congress party has suffered two landslide defeats against Modi in the last two general elections.

BJP’s focus only on ‘gaining power at any cost’: Sonia Gandhi

Congress party’s former president Sonia Gandhi says Indian Prime Minister Modi and his BJP party are promoting “hatred for political gain”.

“Today in every corner of the country, youth are facing unemployment, women are facing atrocities, Dalits, tribals, backward classes and minorities are facing terrible discrimination,” she said in a video message posted by her party.

“This atmosphere is due to the intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Their focus is only on gaining power at any cost.”

Sonia Gandhi, one of India’s most influential leaders, is the widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. She is also the party’s longest-serving president with 19 years at the helm, from 1998 to 2017, before handing over the baton to her son, Rahul, who quit the post in 2019.

Voter turnout falls compared with last election

Journalist Sravasti Dasgupta has told Al Jazeera the voter turnout in the ongoing election has seen a “significant dip” compared with 2019.

“In the first two phases, we have seen the voter turnout was somewhere around 66 percent. In comparison, the voter turnout in 2019 for the same two phases was 69 percent,” said Dasgupta, who works for The Wire, an independent news website.

“Lots of reasons are being given, the fact that there is an intense heatwave sweeping across most parts of the country as we are in the middle of summer here in India.”

Why voters in southern India are more resistant to Modi’s politics

Modi has made some 20 trips this year to five southern states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. They account for roughly 20 percent of the country’s population and 30 percent of its economy.

Together, the five states control roughly a quarter of the 543 seats in the lower house of parliament. If the BJP can win just a few more than the 29 seats it won from these states in 2019, its majority is within reach.

However, experts are sceptical that this will happen because southern voters have deep connections to regional parties that have dominated for decades and are the BJP’s toughest opponents.

“If you conceive of a Hindi-speaking, unified civilisation as the reason you exist, then that becomes a significant barrier for you to cross,” data scientist and political analyst Neelakantan RS said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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