UPDATES WITH INDIAN PRIME MINISTER CASTING VOTE; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK; ADDS MORE DETAILS
By Ahmad Adil
NEW DELHI (AA) - Amid voting during the third phase of the 7-phase general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday cast his ballot in his home state of Gujarat in western India.
Modi, 73, flew to his home state to vote in the Gandhinagar electoral constituency on Tuesday morning.
From April 19 to June 1, voters across the country will elect 543 lawmakers to the country’s lower house of parliament, also known as the Lok Sabha. The vote count will take place on June 4.
"Voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections! Urging everyone to do so as well and strengthen our democracy," Modi wrote on X after casting his ballot.
According to India’s election commission, polling is taking place on Tuesday in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and union territories. Around 172.4 million voters are eligible to vote in the third phase.
Since Tuesday morning, voters have turned up to cast their ballots in various states, according to Indian election authorities.
In the last two phases, millions of voters turned out to cast their ballots for 189 parliamentary seats.
Disappointed with the voting percentage in the last two phases compared to the 2019 polls, the election commission said last week that it has doubled up its voter participation interventions “to overcome the small drop in turnout in the first two phases of Lok Sabha polls.”
This election is primarily a battle between the National Democratic Alliance led by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition alliance called INDIA headed by the Indian National Congress.
Tuesday’s voting is also witnessing the visit of a large number of foreign delegates to experience India’s polling process and management, according to the commission.
The election commission said the voting will open at 7 a.m. (0130GMT) and end at 6 p.m. (1230GMT).
Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah is among more than 1,300 candidates who are in the fray in Tuesday’s phase of polls. Of the total seats going to the polls, more than 70 seats were swept by the ruling party in the 2019 general elections.
The 93 seats for which the voting will take place Tuesday include 25 seats in the Gujarat state, followed by 14 in the southern Karnataka state.
The other states and union territories where elections will take place in this phase are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
The commission said Monday night that 264 observers had reached their constituencies days before the polls.
Ahead of the third phase of voting, the Indian election commission also on Monday issued directions to political parties for the “responsible and ethical use of social media in election campaigning.”
The direction came amid outrage over an animation video posted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka state unit which critics said "demonizes" Muslims. The main opposition, the Indian National Congress party, filed a complaint over the matter.
- 'Not against Muslims'
Ahead of the third phase of voting, Modi said in an interview that he does not oppose Islam or Muslims.
“We are not against Islam. We are not against Muslims. This is not our domain,” he told the broadcaster Times Now.
“They (opposition) would vilify us as anti-Muslim and then would claim they are friends of Muslims. They gained through this. That is why they created this atmosphere of fear. They were reaping benefits by fearmongering. But the Muslim community is aware now,” he said.
“The opposition's problem is that their lies have been caught. That is why to mislead, they have to keep saying all kinds of lies.”
Modi added: “Please introspect. Think. The country is progressing, if your community is feeling deprived, what's the reason for it? Why didn't you get the benefits of government schemes when Congress was in government?”
He also said on Tuesday that India had reached a "turning point" in history and the people have to decide whether “vote jihad” or Ram Rajya will work in India.
“You have to decide whether ‘vote jihad’ will work in India or ‘Ram Rajya’ will,” he told an election rally in Central India.