India election: Vote count set to begin after exit polls predict huge win for Modi

Vishal Aheer and his team trudged up treacherous Himalayan mountain paths and across rickety bridges for seven hours to make sure that just 185 Indian villagers could vote in what has been a mammoth election.

The rules say no one should have to travel more than 2 km or so to cast their ballot – and Almi, a hamlet in Mandi constituency in the state of Himachal Pradesh, is one of the inaccessible areas where officials have to bring the ballot box to the voters.

“We risked our life to get here,” Aheer said after a trek that crossed rivers, pools and mountain passes.

As voting concludes in India amid a heatwave, people in the southern city of Bengaluru are focused on a singular issue: the paucity of water.

The city, known as India’s Silicon Valley due to its IT industry, has been grappling with a water crisis so severe that some days there isn’t enough to take a shower or even flush a toilet.

However, the crisis has received scant attention during the ongoing election campaigns.

A miniature city has mushroomed just hours away from Delhi, ruled by Indian farmers from the breadbasket state of Punjab.

Stretching over 6km of the national highway connecting Punjab to the capital New Delhi, this protest city stands as a blot on the otherwise dominant position enjoyed by Narendra Modi across northern India.

Though the farmers have been camped out here since February, they see Saturday’s voting across Punjab – part of the final day of India’s marathon election – as their best opportunity yet to have their voices heard by the government in Delhi.

Their demands for state-backed guarantees on prices for certain key crops date back to when huge farmer protests brought Delhi to its knees in 2020 and 2021, finally forcing Modi to repeal a set of agricultural reforms and agree to set up a minimum support price (MSP).

They say he has failed to keep that promise and are furious that he could nonetheless be on the brink of winning an historic third term in power.

A comedian who shot to fame for his impersonation of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is now taking him on in the general election.

Shyam Rangeela is trying to show that Modi’s power cannot be absolute for the good of Indian democracy by running for the seat in Varanasi.

The comic hopes that his campaign is high-profile enough to deter some of the tactics alleged by critics and adversaries of prime minister Modi.

Read more and watch here:

Mohammad Saad was excited to return home to Bihar in eastern India and see his family. He had bought a train ticket and was packed to leave in the morning, but he never made it.

On that night of 31 July 2023, a mob of around 200 Hindus stormed the Anjuman Mosque in Gurugram, where Saad served as the deputy imam, and killed him in his sleep. The mob also burnt down the mosque.

Sectarian violence had erupted in the neighbouring Nuh region, and quickly spilled over into Gurugram, a shiny satellite township of India’s capital Delhi that hosts the offices of multinational corporations such as Google, Meta and Deloitte.

Narendra Modi‘s crackdown on civil liberties in India is gnawing away at one of the country’s last independent institutions – the Election Commission.

Once regarded as an aggressively fair umpire of India’s maddeningly complex and multitudinous elections, the agency is now seen by critics as favouring Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The regression has come about because of policy and personnel changes that Modi’s government has affected over the years.

The Instagram video begins with a stern-looking cartoon of Narendra Modi staring down the barrel of the camera, appealing for Indians to lend him their “massive support at this hour”. With stirring music and an impassioned voice-over, it uses menacing-looking caricatures of sword-wielding Muslims to warn that Modi’s opponents want to “snatch the wealth of non-Muslims” and “distribute it to Muslims, their favourite community”.

The animation was released by the official social media account of Modi’s BJP party with the country’s marathon general election already underway. Though it was later taken down amid public outrage for demonising a minority religion, it mirrors similar messaging in the prime minister’s own rally speeches and was followed by another video on similar themes posted on the party’s Twitter/X profile.

Another reel on the BJP’s Instagram page features a parody of Shark Tank India, the most-watched Hindi-language non-fiction show in the country in the past year, with 12.5 million viewers. In the video, the “contestants” pitching to the judges are India’s main opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party. They are mocked by the judges, before being shown a BJP manifesto. At the end of the clip, each judge pledges not an investment, but “my support for Modi”.

Read Maroosha Muzzafar’s report.

At least 50,000 workers met at the party headquarters in Delhi to discuss the preparations for the post-result celebrations.

Preparations are also in full swing at the Congress’ headquarters where a makeshift tent has been erected.

BJP has planned a “political event” at the weekend and it is likely to take place at either Bharat Mandapam or Kartavya Path on the same day as the official swearing-in, according to the Indian Express.

The event, themed as an exhibit of India’s cultural heritage, may feature a sound and light show and is expected to attract 8,000-10,000 attendees, including representatives from foreign governments.

A senior government official informed the newspaper that the event could occur on 9 June. However, it has not yet been finalised.

It is this sense of fear and uncertainty that opposition parties and critics of Mr Modi are seeking to tap into as India prepares to vote in the national elections that start on 19 April and end with the declaration of results on 4 June.