Voting begins in India’s election with Modi widely expected to win third term

Voting has begun in India’s mammoth general election, as Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago.

The elections have been described by analysts at the most predictable polls India has held in decades, with Modi and his BJP widely expected to win a third term in power.

This has been seen to come at a cost to India’s minorities, particularly its 200 million Muslims, who have faced increasing persecution, allegedly discriminatory laws and documented violence by the state and rightwing Hindu outfits affiliated with the BJP.

Modi talks of development, dignity, and undoing historical wrongs,” said Divya, 27, an engineer from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, who will vote for the BJP on Friday.

Milan Vaishnav, the director of the south Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described the election as a “referendum on a decade of Modi’s governance”.

Ajay Lakhotra, 23, a law student from Jammu City, usually a BJP stronghold, said he would be voting for Congress on Friday, citing the unemployment rate in his area, which was among the highest in the country.