Indians cast their votes in the marathon elections

Nearly a billion Indians started voting in Parliament on Friday and will end on June 1, a multi-phase election spanning 44 days.

Nearly 970 million voters will elect 543 members to the lower house in a seven-phase election over five years. The final votes will be counted and announced on June 4.

“A billion people will vote… It will be quite a challenge for us,” Federal Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju told media earlier.

“I urge all those who vote to exercise their right to vote in record numbers,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking an unprecedented third term, posted on social media platform X ahead of the first phase of voting on Friday.

The size of the electorate makes elections a tough management task, says Balveer Arora, chairman of the Center for Multilevel Federalism, New Delhi, and former professor of political science at the Center for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its election manifesto ‘Modi’s Guarantee’. The manifesto promises to create jobs, boost infrastructure and expand welfare programs. It also proposes an ambitious vision for the country to become a ‘developed nation’ by 2047.

The only other party with national influence is the Congress, which is the leading candidate against the BJP. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party are Modi’s main challengers.

Holding elections during the hottest months of the year has made things more difficult. A scorching heatwave engulfed several parts of India on Saturday, with maximum temperatures ranging from 40 to 46 degrees Celsius in some areas.

Unemployment rate

Occasional violence and clashes were reported in some parts of the country. Social tensions surface during elections and security forces are needed to maintain peace and law and order, Arora said.

Despite strong economic growth, unemployment in India is alarmingly high. Youth unemployment, especially among 20 to 24-year-olds, remained high at 44.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The agriculture sector, on which more than 40 percent of India’s population depends for their livelihood, poses another huge challenge.

Farmers are struggling with mounting debts and stagnant incomes, which has led to widespread anti-government protests and demands for minimum income guarantees and agricultural reforms.

“These are not new issues. None of the parties, neither the Congress party nor the BJP, or other parties, have been able to tackle these issues effectively,” said Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, professor at the Center for the Study of Social Exclusion. and inclusive policies from Jamia Millia Islamia, a university in New Delhi.

Attracting foreign investment remains another major problem for a new government, despite reforms during Modi’s 10-year tenure.

“As a fast-growing market, India is attractive for multinational companies. However, the Indian market is also fraught with many uncertainties, which pose various risks and challenges for foreign investment,” said Lin Minwang, deputy director of Fudan University’s Center for South Asian Studies.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.