India General Elections: Insights from Phase Four Voting and Political Dynamics

 

The fourth round of India's seven-week general elections began with voting on Monday, amid heightened campaigning over religious and economic divides.

In the world's most populous country, where over a billion people are eligible to vote, polling started on April 19 and will be conducted in seven phases. Voter tallying is set for June 4.

A coalition of over a dozen opposition parties, including the main opponent Congress, opposes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in his attempt to win an uncommon third term.

Amit Shah, the nation's home minister and a strong friend of Modi, made an appeal as voting got underway, saying, "I urge everyone to vote for a decisive government."

Voting for 96 parliamentary seats was mostly held on Monday in the eastern and southern states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha, where the BJP is not as powerful as it is in the north and west of the nation.

Following Modi's 2019 decision to remove the region's semi-autonomy, Srinagar, the capital of the unrest-plagued Kashmir Valley, is also voting for the first time. The results of the polls, according to observers, might run counter to Modi's vision of a more tranquil and integrated Kashmir, so the BJP is not running for office there.

According to Bashir Ahmad Lala, a 67-year-old resident of Srinagar, "I voted after more than two decades... we are trying to find relief from what we are enduring here."

Prior to the election, opposition parties claimed its activists were being arrested, an allegation the police refuted. As a result, the police placed limitations on meetings in fortified zones.

Farooq Abdullah, the National Conference party's president and a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, predicted that Modi and Shah will "definitely lose" in the national election.

Asaduddin Owaisi, a well-known Muslim MP from Hyderabad in the south, also cast a ballot on Monday and claimed that the BJP had lost support as a result of Modi's recent "poisonous" remarks directed towards minority Muslims.

"No one is bigger than the country," he declared. Modi is not the nation, therefore." According to Modi, his government does not discriminate against Muslims.

Opinion pollsters have expressed doubts about the BJP and its partners' ability to win a sizable majority, and they claim that poor voter turnout has forced Modi to alter his campaign plan after the first round.

Modi has turned his attention from his financial track record to the Congress with plotting to give Muslims preferential treatment at the expense of underprivileged tribal communities and Hindu castes.

He said last month that Congress had come up with a scheme to divide up the property owned by Muslims who are primarily Hindus, calling them "intruders" since they have "more children."

The BJP disputes the claim made by the Congress that they made such a pledge and that Modi is alarmed by the results.

About 80% of India's 1.4 billion inhabitants are Hindu, but the country also has about 200 million Muslims, making it the home of the third-largest Muslim population in the world. Voters' top concerns, according to surveys, are growing costs and joblessness.

Odisha's tribal Koraput district resident Pradeep Kumar Sethi declared, "I will vote for someone who is educated and can develop our region."

The government has rejected the arguments made by Congress, which calls for improved representation and welfare programs for the underprivileged and marginalized populations, claiming that during Modi's ten-year administration, economic inequality has increased.

In an appeal to voters, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge urged, "Do not be afraid of the divisive speeches that divide society."

Prior to the vote, on Monday, the Supreme Court gave Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal temporary bail in a corruption case, allowing him to campaign, which was a blow to the opposition Bharat Gathbandhan.

As temperatures in several regions of the nation soared beyond 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or more last week, observers were also keeping an eye on the effect of hot weather on voting.