Modi expected to win as Indians vote in final phase of marathon election

Indians have voted in the final phase of a six-week national election, with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rivals saying they will win the polls.

A total of 57 seats in eight states and union territories are up for voting during the last stage of the polls. 

The final phase is held as the country of 1.4 billion people is experiencing voter fatigue due to scorching summer temperatures and unusually high heatwaves.

More than 100 million people were registered to vote on Saturday to elect members for Lok Sabha or the lower house of parliament.

Modi's constituency in Varanasi, which is considered as the spiritual capital by the Hindu majority in India, is one of the constituencies  voting in the last phase.

The seven-phase vote, which began on April 19, has primarily revolved around the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Modi, and the main opposition Indian National Congress party.

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi is the scion of the family which ruled India for over half a decade, who is giving Modi a tough competition. 

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The opposition parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), primarily led by the Congress party, to counter the BJP.

The main focus of the opposition campaign has been on affirmative action and protecting the constitution from what they call as Modi's dictatorship.

After coming to power for the first time in 2014, Modi’s two-time tenure has faced criticism for rising unemployment, attacks on minorities, and depleting press freedom.

Nevertheless, Modi is widely expected to win a third term in office when results are announced Tuesday.

His image at home has been bolstered by India's rising diplomatic and economic clout. The country overtook Britain as the world's fifth-biggest economy in 2022.

He has already led the BJP to two landslide victories in 2014 and 2019, forged in large part by his appeal to the Hindu faithful.

Muslim concerns 

This year, he presided over the inauguration of a grand temple to the deity Ram, built on the grounds of a centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya razed by Hindu zealots in 1992.

The event and numerous appeals to India's majority Hindus over the past decade have made many among the country's 200 million-plus minority Muslim community increasingly uneasy about their futures.

Modi himself has made a number of strident comments about Muslims on the campaign trail, referring to them as "infiltrators".

He has also accused the coalition of more than two dozen opposition parties of plotting to redistribute India's wealth to its Muslim citizens.

Western countries have largely sidestepped concerns over rights and democratic freedoms in the hopes of cultivating an ally that can help counter China, India's northern neighbor and rival regional power.

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