By David Asta Alares
Kalpetta, India, Apr 26 (EFE).- Millions of voters turned out on Friday to queue outside hundreds of thousands of polling stations, braving the sweltering heat typical of Indian summers, for the second phase of the six-week-long parliamentary polls,
Nearly 160 million eligible voters were called to cast their ballots in constituencies spread across 13 regions for the second round of the seven-phase elections.
However, an estimated turnout an hour before the polling stations closed at 6 pm was less than 65 percent, according to data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), about 5 percent lower compared to the 2019 elections, which saw an average 70 percent turnout.
Uttar Pradesh in the north, the stronghold of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, witnessed a turnout of nearly 53 percent, the lowest among the states that voted in the second phase.
The turnout for the first phase of polling on Apr 19 was estimated to be around 60 percent of the 166.3 million eligible voters.
A total of 88 parliamentary seats were up for grabs during the second phase, including that of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s main rival in his pursuit of a third term.
Gandhi contested from Wayanad, in the southern Kerala state, one of the few Indian states that have never elected any candidate from the Hindu nationalist BJP.
“I am voting for Rahul Gandhi because he is supporting all religions and not encouraging hate against anyone. Personally, he’s good and he’s from the Gandhi family,” Moosa, one of the first voters in line at a school in Wayanad’s Kalpetta city, told EFE.
Issues such as Hindu nationalism promoted by Modi and the BJP have been fueling opposition sentiment among voters in southern states, including Kerala and Karnataka.
“The BJP is increasingly supporting more the Hindu religion,” Moosa said, a comment on the rise in Hindu nationalism during Modi’s decade in power.
It has sparked criticism in the south of the country but played a major role in BJP’s popularity in the northern Hindu-majority states.
“I don’t have a good opinion about the BJP government because of their treatment of minorities. I think that minorities have suffered a lot after 10 years of (this) government,” Kunhimuhammed, a retired worker, told EFE at a polling booth.
The third phase is scheduled for the first week of May, with the election results set to be announced on June 4.
The protracted elections have already been marred by alleged hate speeches and blatant communal overtones.
Modi told a crowd of his supporters on Apr. 22 that the Congress party, if voted to power, would snatch the wealth of Hindus and distribute it among Muslims, referring to them as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children.”
Hindus make up 80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, while Muslims, accounting for 14 percent, form the largest minority community. EFE
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