India first phase election updates: Modi seeks third term in mammoth vote

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To read more about India’s mammoth national election, you can access our explainer here. You can also read our report on Modi and his BJP’s chances of winning in a key southern Indian state here.

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Voters in the violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur turned out in large numbers to vote in the shadow of ethnic clashes that killed at least 220 people within a year.

The state has been roiled by fighting between the majority Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities since May. There were scattered incidents of violence on Friday despite heavy security.

Although election campaign meetings were held behind closed doors because of fears of violence in the state of 3.6 million people, there was 68 percent voter turnout by 5pm (11:30 GMT), when polling stations closed.

“We expect the turnout to go up a little. Overall, people turned up and came out to vote,” Pradeep Jha, Manipur’s chief election officer, said earlier in the day.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of today’s events:

• Voting in the first phase of India’s general election took place in 102 constituencies across 21 states as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third term.
• The seven-phase election involves nearly a billion eligible voters in the largest democratic exercise in the world. Votes will be counted on June 4.
• India’s Election Commission said there was nearly a 60 percent turnout in the first phase of the election as of 5pm (11:30 GMT).
• Voting in some areas of the northeastern state of Manipur, which has been hit by ethnic riots, was disrupted after allegations of irregularities, Indian media reported.
• A paramilitary security officer in Bijapur district of the central state of Chhattisgarh was injured in an “accidental” explosion, reports quoting the police said.
• The next phase of the vote will be held on April 26 with 89 parliamentary seats up for grabs across 13 states.

If Modi wins, he will be only the second Indian leader to retain power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.

The BJP controls much of Hindi-speaking northern and central India but is now trying to gain a foothold in the east and south. Its toughest challenge is in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where voting was held for its 39 seats on Friday.

Modi’s two terms have seen civil liberties in India come under attack as he implements what critics say are discriminatory policies. Peaceful protests have been crushed with force. A once free and diverse media are threatened, violence is on the rise against the Muslim minority and government agencies have arrested opposition politicians in alleged corruption cases.

“Any party that comes back for a third term and with a brute majority is a scary prospect for democracy,” said Arati Jerath, a political commentator.

Muzaffarnagar district in northern Uttar Pradesh state saw deadly riots a decade ago, but religious divisions still influenced voters in an election in which Hindu nationalism is a key theme.

Clashes broke out here in 2013 after two Hindus stabbed a Muslim youth to death, accusing him of sexually harassing their sister. They were later beaten to death by a Muslim mob, which caused riots that killed about 65 people, mostly Muslims, and displaced thousands.

Violence has not returned to the sugarcane belt, but political divisions remain.

Modi’s government has “controlled Muslims”, said Ramesh Chand, a Hindu biscuit baker in Kairana city near Muzaffarnagar.

In Jaula village, sugarcane farmer Mohammed Irfan, 50, said Modi’s “high-handedness against Muslims” as well as unemployment and inflation were major reasons for him voting for the opposition Samajwadi Party.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Voting for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections concludes in Muzaffarnagar. pic.twitter.com/T7zxd7pOU0

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

India’s election commission says there was nearly 60 percent turnout in the parliamentary election as of 5pm (11:30 GMT), the Press Trust of India news agency reports.

Ballots are about to close in the first of the seven phases of the weeks-long general election.

In the multiphase 2019 polls, the national voting average was 67 percent.

West Bengal records 77.57% voter turnout till 5pm, the highest amongst the State/UTs voting in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls today. pic.twitter.com/uOFl9vuUJ0

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

BJP spokesman Mohan Krishna says his party will sweep the election, winning 400 of 543 seats.

“The opposition is in disarray,” he told Al Jazeera. “The welfare schemes … a corruptionless government,” led by Modi has given “immense satisfaction as well as confidence to the people”.

Krishna said allegations of backsliding of democracy under Modi were “absolutely rubbish”.

“Democracy and the constitution are held high by the BJP and we have proved that … in the last 10 years,” he said.

Residents in the village of Nehuta in Bihar state’s Aurangabad district are boycotting the vote over development issues, the Press Trust of India news agency reports.

Bihar, located in the east, is one of the poorest and least developed states in the country. But with 40 parliamentary seats, it’s also a politically crucial state, currently governed by a BJP-led coalition.

VIDEO | Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Residents of Nehuta village in Aurangabad, Bihar, boycott polling over development issues. #LSPolls2024WithPTI #LokSabhaElections2024

(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/n147TvqRQz) pic.twitter.com/jfjGzq69H4

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 19, 2024

• Tamil Nadu is governed by an alliance led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, one of the main opposition parties
• Modi’s BJP rules in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh
• The BJP is also in power through alliances in Maharashtra, Bihar, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Puducherry
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep are federally governed with no democratically elected government
• Indian-administered Kashmir is also ruled from New Delhi, with no state elections since the Modi government scrapped its special status in 2019
• West Bengal is governed by the All India Trinamool Congress Party, a part of the opposition’s INDIA alliance
• A coalition of six regional parties, the Zoram People’s Movement, governs Mizoram

Here’s a brief list of some of the most important among 102 constituencies voting on Friday:

Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh: The epicentre of anti-Muslim riots in 2013 that some observers believe helped the BJP win big in India’s most populous state in 2014 (72 out of 80 seats). The constituency, and its neighbouring seats, have a significant Muslim population, but the BJP’s ability to consolidate Hindu votes helped it win in 2014 and 2019.

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu: Prime Minister Modi’s BJP has traditionally struggled to break through the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where it won zero out of the 39 seats in 2019. This time, the party is betting on a rising star, the party’s state leader K Annamalai, to deliver an unlikely win from Coimbatore.

Nagpur, Maharashtra: Federal transport minister Nitin Gadkari – a senior BJP leader who some political analysts view as a potential challenger to Modi – is contesting from Nagpur, a city famous for its oranges. Nagpur is also the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu majoritarian umbrella group that is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

Manipur: Both of the northeastern state’s two seats are voting in the first phase on April 19, and in part in the second phase on April 26. The elections are being held in the backdrop of ethnic strife that has effectively fractured Manipur between its plains – where the majority Meitei community predominantly lives – and the hills – where the Kuki community lives. More than 200 people have been killed in clashes since last May between the two communities, with many blaming the state’s BJP government for a biased role and for its failure to stop the violence. Will it pay a political price?

Holding elections in Chhattisgarh state’s Bastar is an immense logistical and security challenge, with dense forests providing ample cover for Maoist rebels, say officials.

“Setting up polling stations and conducting voting in a peaceful manner has always been a challenge because of left-wing extremism,” the state’s chief electoral officer Reena Kangale told AFP news agency.

“Much of the area is also mined, so access is a problem without loss of life and limb.”

In recent days, hundreds of security personnel have been searching for improvised explosives on new roads deep inside dense forests to protect polling officials.

Ajay Dikshit, 57, a government school principal seconded to election duty, said his family had pressed him to turn down the assignment.

“I am government employee and I can’t refuse an order,” he said before voting day, while awaiting a helicopter ride to his post. “I just hope that everything works out well.”

The officers at a polling station in Chedema village in the tiny mountain state of Nagaland are all women.

The Northern Angami constituency is Nagaland’s first to be solely managed by women polling officers. It was the idea of Kumar Ramnikant, the administrative head of Kohima district, in hopes of breaking job stereotypes.

“If our country needs proper develop then there should be equal contribution from both halves,” Ramnikant said. “Empowerment should not only be at the top level, it should be at the bottom level also. It should be at all layers for real empowerment.”

“Women are more systematic. They take every sentence seriously whereas men have an easy attitude,” said Zhoto Khamo, an officer who has supervised many elections.

For nearly a year now, the majority Meitei and the mainly Christian Kuki-Zo communities in India’s northeastern state of Manipur have been locked in what is arguably the country’s longest running ethnic conflict in the 21st century.

The conflict has killed at least 219 people, injured 1,100 others and displaced 60,000. It has also revived an array of armed groups, sweeping up men and boys as recruits from both communities.

An assessment of the violence by Assam Rifles – the federal government’s paramilitary force – puts part of the blame on the state government, headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a member of Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP and his “political authoritarianism and ambition”.

The report is significant because Modi in his election campaign speeches asserted that the federal government’s timely intervention had led to a “marked improvement in the situation” in Manipur.

Read more here.

Voting in some areas of Manipur’s capital Imphal has been halted, Indian news agency ANI reports.

“Polling stopped at 5 Thongju, 31 Khongman Zone in Imphal after some women alleged irregularities and created a ruckus,” ANI said in a post on X.

For nearly a year, the northeastern state bordering Myanmar has been gripped in what is arguably the country’s longest-running ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities.

The conflict has killed more than 200 people and displaced tens of thousands as Modi’s government faced criticism for failing to control the violence in the state governed by his BJP party.

#WATCH | Manipur: Polling stopped at 5 Thongju, 31 Khongman Zone in Imphal after some women alleged irregularities and created a ruckus. The polling officer closed the polling booth: Imphal East DC#LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/OvkLOp7wBp

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

Publication of exit-poll data while an election is in progress is illegal under Indian law, so any indication of which way the vote is trending will only come after the last phase of voting concludes on June 1.

Formal ballot counting begins three days later on June 4, though the use of electronic voting machines means tallying will be quick. Results should be announced on the same day.

The party with a simple majority of 273 or more seats in the lower house is invited to form a government with its choice of prime minister. If no single party reaches that mark, India’s president will ask the leading party to try to put together a coalition.

Previously, that has led to days – and sometimes weeks – of intense horse-trading and negotiations between parties to cobble together a working majority.

While Indians are voting in a crucial parliamentary election, voters in four states are also participating in legislative polls over the next few weeks.

Andhra Pradesh in the south, neighbouring Odisha, and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast will pick new state assemblies alongside the Lok Sabha election.

Of these, all the 60 assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh and 32 in Sikkim are voting on Friday, while the other two states will also hold a second phase of state polls.

Elderly Hindu monk Ram Bhakt, 96, is braving searing heat as he hobbles through the narrow lanes of Haridwar, one of India’s holiest cities in the Himalayas, to vote for Modi and his faith.

“I am voting for India’s civilisational glory,” said the wizened nonagenarian, clad in a simple saffron robe and resting his weight on a wooden walking stick, his wrinkled forehead smeared with vermilion and ash.

“Under Modi, our country has become what we sages had always hoped for,” he told the AFP news agency.

Shiv Shankar Giri, a young man serving in a Hindu monastic order in Haridwar, said he had cast his vote for “the one who had brought Ram”, the Hindu god.

Earlier this year, Modi inaugurated a grand Ram temple, built near the site in Ayodhya, another holy town in Uttar Pradesh state, where a 16th-century mosque was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.

“We are all voting for the person who has made Hinduism strong,” said the 28-year-old. “We are voting for Modi.”