India sees biggest voting day

FE Team | Published: April 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

KHUNTI, India: Indian residents queuing up to cast vote in Khunti in India\'s Jharkhand state Thursday. — AFP Photo

BANGALORE, India, Apr 17 (AFP): India hosted its biggest day of voting Thursday with the ruling Congress party battling to stem a further slide in the polls against the opposition Hindu nationalists after another week of damaging headlines.
Voters lined up in 121 constituencies across a dozen states on the sixth day of staggered voting in the election extravaganza which ends with results May 16.
Over 195 million voters were eligible to cast ballots, a quarter of the 814-million-strong electorate, with the key battleground states of northern Uttar Pradesh and southern Karnataka in play.
"It's a very important election, as it will decide the country's future, the idea of India and its philosophy," billionaire first-time candidate Nandan Nilekani told AFP in IT hub Bangalore.
Nilekani, who made his fortune co-founding outsourcing giant Infosys, is standing for Congress in the city where inflation, corruption and sharply slowing economic growth are key issues.
Congress, in power for two terms since 2004, is widely expected to lose to the resurgent opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi.
The 63-year-old barrel-chested leader, chief minister of prosperous Gujarat state in western India, insists only he can revive the faltering economy.
A new survey this week showed for the first time the BJP and its allies attaining a majority in the 543-seat parliament.
India's economic slowdown-the economy has posted sub-five percent growth for two years in a row-was on many voters' minds.
Meanwhile, the ruling Gandhi political dynasty has stepped up attacks on Modi.
Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, whose daughter Priyanka and son Rahul are also campaigning, told voters Wednesday Modi represented a "dangerous combination of religious fanaticism, power and money".
Elsewhere Thursday, voters cast ballots in the crucial battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, the western desert state of Rajasthan and central Chhattisgarh, where a weekend Maoist rebel attack left 14 dead.
The second phase of voting there was marked by a bomb attack on a railway line that disrupted travel but caused no casualties, the Press Trust of India reported.
Modi struck back late Wednesday at the Gandhi family's attacks, saying it was their "obsession to pull Modi down".