From April 19th India goes to vote for the renewal of Parliament and there are immediately record numbers. The voters called to the polls are 969 million (already double the population of the European Union). According to the Election Commission, the number of women registered to vote has increased by 40 million compared to the previous election in 2019, while more than 20 million voters aged between 18 and 29 have been added to the electorate. There are 218 thousand centenarians registered to vote. There are 2,600 parties. The Election Commission of India will deploy 15 million people to supervise voting operations. Voting will also take place in the highest polling station in the world, in the Himalayan mountains, at an altitude of 4,650 metres.
Due to the size of the territory, voting does not take place on a single day, but is divided into seven phases in the different states, for a total duration of almost six weeks: 44 days. Voting will close on June 1st and results will be declared on June 4th.
Indians will vote for 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament, called the Lok Sabha, with another two seats nominated by the country’s president. The party that obtains the majority will nominate one of its winning candidates as prime minister and form the government.
Expert analyzes and surveys agree. The big favorite in the vote is the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 73 years old, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power since 2014 and seeking a third mandate. In a decade Modi has left his mark on the Indian political and cultural landscape, extolling Hindu nationalism, curbing freedom of the press, weakening the rights of minorities, especially the Muslim one and also the Christian one. Last March 11, the law came into force which allows only non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to regularize in the country. Open Doors International, a Protestant organization that tracks anti-Christian persecutions around the world, currently classifies India as the eleventh most dangerous nation for Christians, stating that “Christians across the Indian nation increasingly find themselves under threat.”
In recent years Modi has wanted to establish himself as a global leader. He has forged ties with world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Relations with Giorgia Meloni also seem very good. For Modi, his biggest moment on the world stage came when he hosted the G20 summit in Delhi last year, where he emerged as the voice of the developing world, the so-called “Global South”.
As the magazine wrote Wired, Modi “appears to be the favorite thanks to the enormous following he has gained on social media and in particular on YouTube. At 73 years old, his skillful management of online communication it is also influencing the electoral campaigns of opponents, defining the behavior that politicians around the world may have to maintain in future elections.”
Faced with Modi’s excessive power, the opposition is in trouble. Ahead of the elections, a coalition of 27 parties called India (Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance) was created. The main opposition political force is the Congress Party, whose leader is Rahul Gandhi, son of Sonia, widow of Rajiv Gandhi. On the eve of the elections, Rahul Gandhi called on militants to do everything to save the Indian Constitution and democracy. However the coalition fell apart due to disputes over leadership and seat-sharing. Not even a strong figure of a prime ministerial candidate has emerged. Thus, in India going to the polls, only the man in command stands out, Narendra Modi.