India begins voting in two eastern states in key test for Modi

Published March 27, 2021
A woman checks the temperature of a voter before he casts his vote at a polling booth during the first phase of the West Bengal state election in Purulia district, India, March 27. — Reuters
A woman checks the temperature of a voter before he casts his vote at a polling booth during the first phase of the West Bengal state election in Purulia district, India, March 27. — Reuters

Voting began in Assam and West Bengal on Saturday in state elections that will show how support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding up following a coronavirus-stricken year, and months of protests by farmers against his agricultural reforms.

Re-elected for a second five-year term in 2019, Modi’s grip on power is under no threat, but the elections in the two eastern states are the first since the farmers launched protests that have been mainly in the north, around the capital Delhi.

It was the first phase of voting in both states, and the results won’t be known for months.

For all the concerns over the coronavirus, politicians out on the campaign trail often showed scant regard for social distancing, but as people waited in long queues outside polling centres in West Bengal on Saturday, security personnel and election workers handed out masks, sanitisers and gloves.

Modi and his home minister Amit Shah campaigned aggressively for their Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, luring local politicians away from the Trinamool Congress party, whose firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee has been chief minister since 2011.

“The main contending parties are strong this time and it is difficult to gauge the mood,” Mahadeb Hansda, a retired school teacher told Reuters by telephone from Purulia district, as he waited to cast his vote.

The BJP currently controls a dozen of India’s 28 states, with alliance partners in several others. But it has never won power in West Bengal, once a communist bastion for more than three decades, and should the BJP defeat Banerjee, analysts say, it would deal a body blow to the broader opposition.

The country’s fourth most populous state, with 90 million people, is key to controlling the upper house of the federal parliament whose members are elected by state assemblies.

In neighbouring Assam, where a BJP-led alliance is seeking a second term, brisk polling began early. Women, clad in traditional dresses, lined up outside voting centres before the polls opened at 7am.

“I want to cast my vote early and be free for the rest of the day,” said Malini Gogoi, a housewife from the northern Assam town of Biswanath.

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.