World’s biggest election kicks off as India votes

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Sadananda Barakandaj, 35, owns a small business selling clothes. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, he lost more than $30,000 (about £26,500) and is still trying to make up his losses.

No matter who comes to power, he wants stronger economic policies to help small businessmen like him. Being the only breadwinner for a family of three is difficult, he says.

Mr Barakandaj grew up in the eastern state of West Bengal. But poverty forced him to migrate to Chennai in the south for work at the age of 16.

His story is similar to that of millions of migrant workers in India who travel from their home states to more prosperous ones to find work.

The poorer among them were among the worst-affected during the pandemic. Many lost jobs and had to walk for hundreds of miles to get home as India imposed consecutive lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus.

When Nalini Krupakaran cast her vote in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, she felt triumphant.

Ms Krupakaran is the daughter of Sri Lankan parents. She was born in a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu after her parents fled Sri Lanka in 1983 to escape deadly anti-Tamil riots - thousands of Tamils lost their lives, according to human rights groups.

Many who fled to neighbouring India have spent the last 40 years living in refugee camps in poor conditions. Though they have got some identity documents, they haven't been granted citizenship and are thus unable to vote.

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Ms Krupakaran is a rare exception. She went to court in 2021 seeking a passport under India's citizenship law.

In 2022, the court ruled in her favour, paving the way for her to get a passport, and on the basis of that, a voter ID card.

"I was a stateless woman. But now I am going to do my democratic duty by getting Indian citizenship," she told the BBC, adding that her vote will represent the voices of Sri Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.

Chinese state media has been reporting on several aspects of India-China ties such as the border standoff, economic rivalry between the two countries, and the perceived decline of India’s influence in South Asia.

The official Xinhua News Agency released an explainer two days ago, quoting experts who claimed that the Indian government's "economic performance is not as bright as advertised".

It also quoted some US analysts saying Mr Modi's campaign had a "Hindu nationalist" tone.

State media outlet The Global Times, meanwhile, highlighted Mr Modi’s remarks calling for "urgently" addressing border tensions between India and China.

The newspaper claimed that Mr Modi made the comments after the "intensification of China-India border tensions due to the US’s biased stance and before the upcoming elections in India".

The BBC's Arunoday Mukharji is outside a polling station in Chennai, the capital city of the southern state of Tamil Nadu. He says the cost of living and lack of jobs for young people are issues high on voters' minds.

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In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, voters have been braving the scorching summer sun to cast their ballots.

Of the state's 29 constituencies, six are voting in the first phase.

Voters have been trickling into polling booths at a slow pace and officials say this could be because the state has been gripped by a severe heat wave. It's also the wedding season here and that too may be a reason for the low turnout, they add.

Chief Electoral Officer of Madhya Pradesh Anupam Rajan said Balaghat, a city gripped by Maoist insurgency, had the highest voting at 52.8% by 14:00 local time (08:30GMT).

Election Commission of IndiaCopyright: Election Commission of India

If you're just joining in, here's a quick recap of what's been happening today:

• Indians are voting in the first round of a seven-phase general election
• Today's polls are to elect 102 of the 543 MPs for the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the parliament)
• Voting will be spread over April and May and end on 1 June
• Results will be declared on 4 June
• The election is the biggest democratic exercise ever, with nearly a billion eligible voters
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term - he's challenged by a coalition of more than two dozen opposition parties, including Congress

The Election Commission says polling is progressing smoothly and peacefully at 102 polling stations across 21 states and federally-governed regions.

At 13:00 India time (07:30GMT), voter turnout ranged from 30% to 53% in different states, the commission said.

The north-eastern state of Tripura (53.04%) and the eastern state of West Bengal (50.96%) were among the states which registered the highest voter turnout.

The states of Meghalaya (48.91%), Assam (45.2%) and Manipur (45.68%) also saw high turnout.

The states of Bihar (32.4%) and Maharashtra (32.36%) had lower turnout in comparison.

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Electoral bonds, launched by PM Modi’s government in 2018, were aimed at cleaning up the murky financing of political parties.

But in February, the scheme, which allowed people and companies to make anonymous donations to parties, was banned by the Supreme Court. The judges called the scheme unconstitutional, saying it lacked transparency.

The court also ordered the government-run State Bank of India (SBI) to provide details of who bought these bonds and which party received how much.

The BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the scheme, securing almost half of the bonds worth 120bn rupees donated between 2018 and 2024 - something that isn’t looking good on Mr Modi’s report card.

Media reports have linked many of the donations to companies that were being investigated by government crime agencies, leading to accusations from the opposition that the government was using investigating agencies for “extortion” – a charge several ministers have denied.

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Voting is also underway in parts of Manipur, the north-eastern state hit by deadly ethnic violence since the summer of 2023.

Clashes between the majority Meitei group and the Kuki minority have routinely made headlines and thousands have been displaced and are living in relief camps.

The region usually has high voter turnout but many members from the two communities have indicated they may abstain in this election.

At 11am, the state had a 29.1% turnout, according to the Election Commission.

Election CommissionCopyright: Election Commission

The BJP manifesto praises the government's track record from the past decade and highlights the benefits of its welfare schemes.

The party bats for its government to be voted back into power in the name of stability and says it will turn India into a developed nation by 2047. It promises to implement a Uniform Civil Code - a single personal law for all citizens irrespective of religion, gender and sexual orientation - and a women’s reservation law passed in parliament last year.

It also promises to implement one of its key talking points - "one nation, one election" or simultaneous federal and state polls - if voted back to power.

The opposition Congress party’s manifesto highlights unemployment and inflation in the country, and promises to deliver justice to oppressed communities.

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It promises to give a one-year apprenticeship to every diploma holder or graduate younger than 25 years, a legal guarantee of assured prices for certain crops, raising the quota cap for socially-disadvantaged caste-based groups and tribespeople, and full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.

If it comes to power, the party says, it will investigate a controversial scheme introduced by the BJP government that allowed political donors to remain anonymous.

The Trinamool Congress, which governs West Bengal and is part of an opposition coalition, says the bloc will repeal a controversial citizenship law - which critics call anti-Muslim - if it comes to power.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), another member of the opposition coalition, has promised to repeal "draconian" anti-terror laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and promises to dismantle all nuclear weapons in India.

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The atmosphere at the polling station we visited in the town of Kairana in rural Uttar Pradesh was relaxed. In the courtyard of a pale, two-storey building with pink pillars and arches - originally a hostel for pilgrims - voters from all communities were making a modern-day pilgrimage to cast their ballots.

One of the first voters we saw was 93-year-old Rameshwari, who had a broken hip and was being carried by her grandson. She was wearing a lilac-coloured, floral sari and was tightly clutching her identity card, as she was taken to the front of the queue. It was a women-only queue, separated from the men’s queue by a bamboo railing.

She later told us that she hoped her vote in this election would mean she would start getting her pension again.

The BBC's Samira Hussain gives a quick update on the first day of polling in India.

In the 10 years that Mr Modi been in power, India’s economy has gone from being clubbed into a grouping called the “fragile five” to finding a place in the world’s top five. On the face of it, ‘Modinomics’ appears to be working. The country’s GDP is outpacing most other economies.

Its dilapidated infrastructure is getting a shiny fix with the government picking up a $100bn tab every year for road, rail and port construction. And the likes of Apple and Tesla are looking at the country as an alternative destination to China - part of a global diversification strategy adopted by Western MNCs.

But there are problems. Inequality is at a record high. Growth in household consumption is at a two-decade low. The private sector is not investing enough and jobs are hard to come by. The rich have gotten richer, while the vast majority remains poor, living on the margins of sustenance, with 800 million people living on food handouts.

Despite the mixed bag performance, business confidence in India remains high and the stock markets are soaring. As the citizens of the world’s most populous nation cast their vote, there’s no doubt the economy will hold a big sway on people’s minds.

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It's always fun to spot celebrities coming out to vote, and the election in Tamil Nadu gave plenty of opportunities for that.

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The BBC's Yogita Limaye is at a polling booth in rural Uttar Pradesh where many are queuing up to cast their votes.

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In January, Mr Modi inaugurated a big temple to Hindu god Ram in the city of Ayodhya, fulfilling a long-standing promise from his Bharatiya Janata Party.

The temple was built on land where a 16th-Century mosque was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking deadly riots in India.

Its opening ceremony was seen as the informal start of Mr Modi’s election campaign, one aimed at consolidating votes from the country’s Hindu majority.

As we mentioned earlier, in a think-tank's pre-poll survey, more than 22% of respondents said the temple topped their list of the action they "liked most" from the current government while nearly half said the temple's construction would help consolidate Hindu identity.

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Earlier this year, photos showing dozens of men standing outside recruitment centres in the northern city of Lucknow were representative of India’s grim jobs crisis. Undeterred by the war in Gaza, they were seeking to go to Israel for menial work in the construction industry.

Unemployment in India is hovering at 7-8% levels, according to private data provider CMIE, and it’s a far worse scenario for the youth and women. Female workforce participation has declined steadily over the past three decades. Barely three out of 10 women do paid work as opposed to eight out of 10 men.

Joblessness among educated youth, meanwhile, has doubled from 35.2% to 65.7% between 2000 and 2022, according to latest figures from the International Labour Organization.

Job creation is a problem that neither Mr Modi or his predecessors have been unable to solve, despite fast growth. The World Bank’s regional economist Franziska Ohnsorge warned in a recent Financial Times interview that India risked "squandering" its demographic dividend, the economic growth potential from a big working age population.

Three generations of a family - Prabha Sharma (second from right), her daughter and two granddaughters - were spotted posing cheerfully for reporters after voting at a polling station in Dehradun in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

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